A New Player: Year One
by Faykan
Summary: A Mysterious new wizard appears on the night Dumbledore deposites Harry at Privet drive, signaling great changes for the wizarding world. But what will he do, and what are his intentions with The Boy-who-lived? - Coverart by Zarem on Deviantart.
1. Prologue

**A New Player**

**Prolog****ue**

**Enter the Blue Wizard**

Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, October 31, 1981

A light breeze blew through the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which had previously lain silent and tidy under the inky black sky. It whispered down the road until reaching Albus Dumbledore, and slightly blew his cloak around his tall and thin frame. The wizard stopped on the corner and glanced back at Number Four, where he could just see the small bundle of blankets he had deposited on the front step of the house.

"Good luck, Harry Potter," he murmured to himself. He then turned on his heel, and, with a swish of his cloak, vanished.

Had he remained a few moments longer, Dumbledore might have realized that he wasn't the only person left standing in the street. Another man, tall and wizened with age like Dumbledore—if not possibly more so—crept out of the shadows between numbers Five and Six, and glanced around for signs of movement. The man wore a robe of deep azure outlined with silver tassels, and carried a large black staff topped with an imposing sapphire in one gnarled hand, which he shifted his grip on slightly as he moved cautiously toward the doorstep of Number Four. As he arrived, he regarded the sleeping baby on the porch with his piercing blue eyes, partially screened by a mass of grey-black hair.

"Harry Potter," the man said softly to the infant, "Dumbledore leaves you here for your safety, and safe you will be within the blood wards. But at what price, I wonder?"

Shaking his head sadly, the sorcerer stooped to softly pat the sleeping babe's face. "I shall do whatever I must to keep you safe, young one. Your destiny is great, but you will need all the help to be had if you hope to achieve it. The path Dumbledore sets you alone only leads to death…"

The man spoke again, his voice changing to a light sing-song tone so dramatically opposed to its usual deepness, "_Tincya haba coia a' sina hin ten'oio_."[1]

Brilliant blue lights slowly emerged from his hand, whilst bold emerald wafted from the slumbering infant as the old man wove his spellsong. The twin energies danced and swayed in the air before they merged into one, becoming a bright golden color. The newfound power then encircled the little baby and the old man, and slowly faded into the two people. The mysterious wizard smiled warmly as the baby turned in his sleep, closing a tiny hand on the letter wrapped with him in the blankets. "Little Harry," the man said, slowly pulling his hand away from the baby boy, a look of pain on his face, "We must part for a time, but fear not my precious one, we will reunite very soon." Chuckling softly, the old man turned and walked away down the street and into the night, vanishing with a little pop, just like Dumbledore had, only minutes ago.

If any passerby happened to listen carefully to the wind that night, they would've heard a soft singsong voice chanting, "_A__' i' quenat en' hin haba coia auta sil'_."[2]

[1] tincya haba coia a' sina hin ten'oio : Join mine life to this child's forever.

[2] a' i' quenat en' hin haba coia auta sil': to the body of a child my life go now.


	2. Chapter 1

**Please, remember to Review. Send me your thoughts, you speculation, your comcerns. they feed my mind and soul with new ideas and wisdom.**

**Chapter One**

**Piter De Vries**

Eight-year-old Harry Potter had never counted his birthday as anything overly special, as his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon never gave him anything worthwhile, and his cousin Dudley only used the day as an extra excuse to beat him.

Today, Harry felt lucky to just have been able to get out of the house without being stopped, and was now at the Magnolia Road playground. Harry liked to come here often, unless Dudley was on one of his great 'Harry-Hunting' sprees. Thankfully Dudley was away with Uncle Vernon visiting his Aunt Marge and Harry hadn't been invited (or forced) to go, which was just fine with him.

Harry was sitting on his favorite swing, watching the other children laughing and running around. He wished he could join in, but the other kids were all too aware of the hatred Dudley's gang had for that strange Potter boy, ergo they were wise to just stay away from him. Harry was pondering what Aunt Petunia would do if he came home too early when somebody sat down in the swing next to him and said something strange in an airy, songlike voice.

"_Mae govannen_."[1]

Harry blinked, not reacting until he realized that the voice was, in fact, addressing him. Turning to see who spoke to him, Harry replied, "What?"

A boy with black, shoulder-length, wavy hair and striking, blue eyes sat there looking at Harry with a huge grin splitting his face. Harry guessed the boy was about his own age. Whatever he had said, it hadn't sounded like any language Harry was familiar with.

"_Mae govannen_," the boy repeated, slower. "It means 'hello.'"

"Oh," Harry said, still unsure what language on earth the boy was speaking. "Um, hello… Who are you? I haven't seen you around here before."

"Wouldn't expect that you'd ever seen me, seeing as how I only just moved here recently to stay with my Aunt Figgie."

"Aunt who?" Harry said, puzzled.

"My aunt, Arabella Figg. She lives over on Magnolia Crescent; I've called her Aunt Figgie since I could talk and the name just kinda stuck." The boy shrugged. "Since my parents died I'll be staying with her from now on."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Harry whispered apologetically. "My parents are dead too." He didn't know why he felt that he had to talk to this boy about his parents, but it just felt right. "I never really knew them, and I live with my aunt and uncle now."

The boy nodded sullenly. "That's very sad, but at least we have people who still love us to take care of us, right?"

"Right, if you call it caring," Harry retorted dully. Why was he telling this boy all his personal information? There was something about this kid, something that just made Harry want to blurt out all his secrets, to confide everything he could with him. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I ever got your name," he said to stop himself from revealing anything more.

"Piter, Piter De Vries," the boy said simply, extending his hand.

"Harry Potter," Harry replied taking it and giving it a few firm pumps up and down. When his hand came in contact with Piter's, Harry felt a warm tingle crawl up his arm and throughout his body, immediately putting him at ease. Was it just him or did Piter smile when Harry say his name? Almost as if he already knew...

"Oh, I know of you. Aunt Figgie told me that you may be dropping by every so often when your relatives go out for special occasions."

'Ah' thought Harry, 'that's why he looked like he knew me.'

"Yeah, my aunt and uncle don't like to have me 'ruin' their outings if they can get out of me being there," Harry explained. "Whenever they can, they drop me at Mrs. Figg's for an afternoon or longer."

"Well, Harry Potter, would you do me the honor of being my first friend in this new area?"

'Friend?' Harry almost choked at the word. 'He wants to be friends with me?'

"Uh… I'd love to, but you might want to be careful. My cousin, Dudley, and his gang of friends like to discourage anyone from associating with me..." Harry mumbled something else in a low voice.

"What was that last bit?" Piter said, looking at Harry's sullen face with concern.

Sighing, Harry repeated softly, "because I'm a freak," and turned away, not wanting to see the other boy's reaction.

"Well, I've only got two things to say to that. Firstly, I don't give a damn what your cousin or his little prat lemmings think; I will be friends with you regardless. And second, I severely doubt you are any more of a freak than I could possibly be." Piter boldly announced, getting up and walking around to look Harry in the eyes while giving him a mischievous grin. "If they try to give us any grief, they will sorely regret it."

Harry doubted that Piter truly meant what he said about Dudley regretting anything, but knowing that somebody didn't care a whit about what other people thought about Harry or his strangeness still felt good. He looked up and gave Piter a shy smile, which was returned by his new friend.

"So," said Harry, "what do you want to do?"

Piter rubbed his chin thoughtfully, leaning in closer to Harry. "Well, we could play… TAG!" He yelled, tapping Harry on the nose and running off in the other direction, squealing in delight. Harry bolted after him, stumbling slightly as he rocketed out of the swing, but slowly catching up to Piter, enjoying the advantage of his slightly longer legs. The two boys continued like this for almost an hour until, exhausted, they collapsed together on a grassy spot a ways away from the playground, both clutching their sides and giggling uncontrollably.

"That. Was. Great!" Piter wheezed between sniggers.

"Yeah, it was." Harry agreed. He was aching all over from the constant chasing and his legs were on fire, but he could not remember ever having such a good time.

"Harry?"

"Yeah, Piter?

"I really like doing stuff with you. Do you want to play again tomorrow?"

Harry thought for a moment. He really liked Piter, and he would want nothing more than to meet with him again, but he doubted that he would be able to get out of the house again so easily.

Gloomily, Harry answered "I'm not sure if I can manage to get away again tomorrow."

"Well, if you can't get away, why don't I come and just get you?" Piter asked, eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Well I'm not sure that the Dursleys will…"

"It's settled then" Piter interrupted. "I'll come and check on you every week to arrange what we can do and when with your relatives. I mean, how bad can they be?"

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The next day Harry was vacuuming the sitting room after breakfast when there was a loud knock on the door. Uncle Vernon opened the door to find a brightly smiling Piter standing on his doorstep.

"Dudley," he called, "one of your little friends is here for you." He started to turn away when the boy shook his head at him.

"Actually sir, I'm here to see Harry Potter." Uncle Vernon looked at him, dumbfounded.

"You're joking, right?" he asked, in all seriousness.

"Nope." Piter replied simply.

"BOY!" Vernon called. Harry stepped out from behind the corner he was watching the exchange from.

"How many times have I told you not to tell people where we lived?" Vernon said, glowering down at Harry.

"Sir, Harry never actually told me where he lived; I kinda figured it out by myself." Piter said matter-of-factly.

Uncle Vernon, still eyeing Harry suspiciously, turned back to Piter. "Well, now that you found where he lives, what do you want?" he questioned coldly.

"I wanted to know if Harry could come out to play," Piter said looking Vernon right in the eye. "You see we met at the park yesterday and I was hoping we could set up times for us to meet over the week. Harry said he had chores to do and wasn't sure when he could meet me at the park over on Magnolia Road, so I decided to come and see when Harry would be available," he added quickly with a wide grin.

At this time Dudley finally appeared to see why his father called him, coming through the door from the kitchen and stopped next to his father, directly in front of Harry blocking his view outside. "Who the blooming hell are you?" he sneered.

Piter, who looked like he was expecting this reaction, stuck out his hand and said to Dudley "I'm Piter De Vries, Harry's friend. You must be his cousin Dudley."

Dudley looked as shocked as if Piter had sprouted a second head and, ignoring the offered hand, said flatly "Why'd you want to be friends with that freak? You got a death wish or something?"

"Why not, I don't think that he could be any worse than _some _people." Piter said curtly, looking pointedly at Dudley for a moment, then turning back to Uncle Vernon, ignoring him. "So, what days can I expect to be able to play with Harry, sir, so that I can tell my aunt when to expect me home late?"

Vernon studied the boy for a moment, and, shooting a fierce glace back at Harry, started to name off the days, and gave very rough estimations of the times that Harry might possibly be free those days. The nearest one was conveniently almost a week away from then. Piter was slightly disappointed at first, but hid it well under a bright, optimistic exterior.

"Alright then, I guess I'll show up next week to play with Harry then, sir." Piter said, while shooting a conspiratorial grin at Harry.

Uncle Vernon merely grunted and shut the door as Piter turned to walk away. Harry knew what was coming next as his Uncle turned and scowled furiously at him. He had the same look that Harry had seen whenever he did anything that seemed just innocent enough to be strange and strange enough to appear innocent.

As Harry had thought, he spent the entire week in his cupboard and only had one meal every other day, if you could call burnt toast and half a glass of water a meal. All because he let himself be followed home by a complete stranger. To the Dursleys, anyone who would willingly associate with Harry could never be anything more than a stranger. Harry swore that he saw Piter leave the park in the complete opposite direction as him, and reasoned that his friend must have doubled back and followed him home so that he would know where Harry lived. Harry also wondered how Piter guessed that he had loads of chores to do, as Harry had never hinted at it himself.

However, true to their word, for once when concerning Harry, the Dursleys let him go out three times a week to play with Piter in the afternoons after his chores. The two friends did everything they could imagine and more together, from roaming the streets to just sitting on the lawn of Mrs. Figg's house and chatting the day away. But, just as Harry's life couldn't be any better, the inevitable problem finally erupted when Dudley caught Harry and Piter in the park with his entire gang.

"Hey look Big D, its Potter," sneered Piers Polkiss, Dudley's right hand and 'best' friend.

"Who's he with?" asked Malcolm and Dennis, the two biggest boys of the group, next to Dudley himself.

"Oy Potty, who's you boyfriend?" jeered Gordon, the final compatriot of the group.

"Let me handle this, Harry," whispered Piter, and before Harry could hold him back or tell him to run, he stepped towards the five menacing bullies.

"I'm going to tell you this once and only once, you lot. Sod off if you know what's good for you, or you will learn to regret your words." Piter stated with unsurpassed confidence.

Amidst all the responded taunts and insults, Dudley stepped forward, towering over Piter by at least half a foot. "De Vries, you'd better stay away from that freak if you know what's good for you," he threatened, but Piter didn't back down. If anything, this statement seemed to only embolden the small, ebony haired boy further.

"I think," he stated flatly, "that you have no clue with who or what you are messing with, therefore, I will do as I see fit, and I see fit to be friends with Harry, and you cannot and will not stop me."

"Have it your way, then," Dudley sneered, and the others all cracked their knuckles preparing for what they thought would be an easy beat down.

Piter surprised all of them when he struck first; punching with all his might into Dudley's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He followed up by kneeing the larger boy in the face and sweeping his legs out from under him, laying Dudley flat on the ground, moaning in pain sporting a bloody nose.

The other four boys looked shocked, but for only a moment, before springing in to avenge their fallen leader. Somehow, Piter moved out of their way, seeming to disappear and reappear behind them and sucker punching Malcolm in the kidney, while simultaneously kicking out at Piers, catching him in the groin. Dennis tried to throw a punch at Piter, but found his fist caught in the smaller boy's hand, who then turned and used the bully's momentum against him and flipping him over onto his back in the dirt.

Gordon managed to grab Piter around the waist, pinning his arms at his side, but before anyone could start to lay into him. Piter threw his entire body weight backward, overbalancing the stocky boy and landing full force on top on him in the dirt. In seconds Piter was back on his feet and in a fighting pose staring down all the older boys, daring them to make a move.

"Five against one, I don't think it's very fair, do you? Maybe you should get a few more, so it might be a challenge for me." Piter sneered at the bullies, who then decided discretion was the better part of valor, and fled.

Sighing slightly, Piter turned to look at Harry, and grinned at the look of absolute shock on his face.

"What?" he asked.

"You just took on five kids twice as big as you and won," Harry said stupidly.

"Your point?" Piter retorted, suppressing a fit of laughter. "You honestly think just 'cause I'm small means I don't know how to kick some arse when needed?"

Harry had no answer for him, as at that they both burst out laughing until their sides threatened to split open.

[1] :_ Mae govannen : Greetings, hello_

**_Review Please!_**


	3. Chapter 2

**Please Review****. They are as light percing the darkness of my mind...**

**Chapter Two**

**Secrets, Powers, and Answers**

The next three years past so quickly to Harry that he swore he must have been asleep for at least half of it. Despite the Dursleys complaining loudly about how that mean De Vries boy was to have hurt their precious Duddy and practically forbidding Harry from ever seeing him again, Piter continued to show up every week, and even Vernon's continued offensive snipes at him couldn't discourage the boy.

Dudley was actually rather terrified of the smaller boy, and he refused to be left in the same room as Piter whenever he came to pickup or drop off Harry. Harry had to stifle his laughter whenever Dudley would run from the house if Piter came too near.

Harry did become worried about how the Dursleys would act when, on Dudley's eleventh birthday, not only was Harry forced to come with his relatives, much to the chagrin of both Harry and Dudley, but that the Dursleys and Harry walked into the main gate of the zoo just to find Piter sitting near one of the booths of refreshments.

"Hi Harry!" he called out as they passed, and he immediately rushed over to join his friend.

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon looked furious at the boy's presence, and Dudley seemed like he was about ready to throw the tantrum of the century. However, Aunt Petunia's finely tuned radar for Dudley's fits kicked in and she quickly suggested to Vernon that they should buy her sweet Diddydums some ice cream. Both Vernon and Dudley bought a large chocolate each, but nothing for either Harry or Piter, but they didn't mind much. Piter afterword whispered to Harry that there wouldn't have been any left for them even if they wanted ice cream, and Harry snorted loudly, only covering his mouth at the last minute before any of the Dursleys heard him.

Harry should have known that this day was far too good to be true to last.

After a short lunch, where Harry and Piter sat far away from the Dursleys, eating sandwiches that Piter had had the foresight to bring for himself, and graciously offered half to Harry, Dudley practically dragged his parents into the reptile house, and curiously both Harry and Piter followed. Cool air wafted over them as they entered, and it took their eyes a few moments to adjust to the darkness, then they stared in amazement at all the different lizards and snakes that lined the sides of the building behind thick glass walls.

Dudley quickly became bored with the boa constrictor in the largest exhibit, which appeared to be sleeping, and slumped off, allowing Piter and Harry to see inside. Harry moved right up against the glass, Piter right beside and a little behind him, but Harry didn't notice as he was focused intently on the snake. Slowly, the snake roused slightly, and opened its eyes to look directly at Harry.

"I'm sorry if I woke you." Harry said softly to it.

The snake suddenly rose up and silently moved close to Harry's eye level. Piter's eyes widened as the snake actually started to hiss back at Harry, and Harry was shocked to find he could understand it.

"It'ssss not your fault, young sssspeaker of our mosssst noble tongue." The snake said gently."

"Harry," Piter said with quite excitement "Do you know what you're doing?" The boy was almost bouncing with enthusiasm.

"Um, no." Harry replied confused.

"You're speaking Parseltongue! Do you even know how exceptionally rare and amazing that talent is!" Piter was visibly trying to keep himself from yelling; so great was his exhilaration at Harry's ability.

"I'm what?" Harry was completely lost, thinking this might be more of Piter's strange almost made up language again.

"You honestly don't know, do you?" Piter looked almost shocked. "Harry . . ." But what Harry didn't know he'd never find out as Dudley screamed for his parents and shoved past both smaller boys, knocking them to the ground.

Harry fell hard on to the concrete floor. What happened next was so fast no one saw how it happened. One second, Dudley was leaning right up against to the glass, and the next, he had leapt back with a howl of terror. Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had completely vanished. The large snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. As the snake slid swiftly past him, it whispered to him once more before trailing out the door.

"Freedom, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."

Piter had dashed over to help Harry up and was practically jumping out of his skin in his urgency to talk to Harry, but Uncle Vernon reached him first. Taking Harry by the upper arm, Vernon practically dragged him while Petunia guided Dudley out and into the parking lot. By the time Piter arrived to wave goodbye, the Dursley were peeling out back onto the road leaving behind a cloud of dust.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The punishment Harry received from the boa incident was longest Harry could ever remember. Finally Harry was released from his cupboard on the week before his birthday, not that the Dursleys would ever have remembered it, and was finally setting down for a rather fractional breakfast when compared to the rest of the Dursleys', when the clink of the mail slot was heard and Uncle Vernon commanded Harry to 'get the mail'.

Harry was just picking up the three items as the doorbell rang and Harry quickly opened it after Petunia yelled for him to answer the door. It was Piter, looking breathless and highly ecstatic.

"Harry!" he wheezed slightly. "Did you see; did you get one?" Piter looked down at the mail in Harry's hand and gasped "You did!" he crowed snatching the bottom letter from Harry and jumping on the spot in delight.

"Piter whoa, what, slow down." Harry said attempting to calm the over excited boy, to no avail.

"We get to go, we get to go" Piter was chanting louder and louder until Harry finally clamped a hand over the boy's mouth to silence him as Uncle Vernon yelled for Harry to hurry up and bring the mail. Closing the front door he left Piter, who was doing a kind of war dance in the hall, thankfully silently, Harry returned and gave the two items of mail to Vernon, bolted his breakfast, and returned quickly to find Piter comparing two almost identically sized letters written upon in green ink on yellowing parchment. Harry looked over his friends shoulder to read the addresses on each letter:

_Mr. H. Potter_

_The Cupboard under the Stairs_

_4 Privet Drive_

_Little Whinging_

_Surrey_

And the second, opened with the letter underneath in Piter's other hand read:

_Mr. F Undol_

_1__st__ Guest Bedroom_

_12 Wisteria Walk_

_Little Whinging_

_Surrey_

"Piter, who is Mr. F Undol?" Harry asked, concerned that his friend might be slightly more delusional.

"I am Harry, my real name is Faykan Undol, I'm sorry for giving you a false identity for so long, but it was necessary for my safety from the people who killed my parents."

Harry could tell this wasn't the whole truth, because Piter-Faykan wouldn't completely meet his eyes.

"Then, where'd you come up with the name Piter De Vries?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I think I read it in a book somewhere*," Faykan replied dismissively. "But that's not important, the fact is we both got accepted!" he continued joyously.

"Accepted for what?" Harry said starting to get slightly annoyed.

"Hogwarts of course, what else did you think we were accepted to?" Faykan replied, finally handing Harry his letter back and watching with baited breath as Harry opened and read:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme_

_Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall,_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Harry was dumbstruck, too many questions spiraling inside his head and he couldn't even compose a simple sentence for a few moments. His friend, Faykan, Harry actually thought that his real name sounded a lot better than the one he had made up for himself, seemed to be enjoying the faces that Harry was making as he processed the information presented before him. Harry was just about to fire off questions when Uncle Vernon came out of the kitchen and saw them holding their letters.

"What are you doing boy!" he said sternly, as he approached. Harry tried to move the letter out of sight, but he wasn't fast enough. Uncle Vernon snatched it out of his hand, read it twice over, and his face turned from red to green and finally, purple.

"Uh oh." Faykan whispered to Harry as Vernon yelled for Petunia and stood, fuming until she came and read the letter.

Staring down to the same similar letter in Faykan's hand, she said hotly. "SO, now we know why you seemed like such a freaky child Mr. De Vries!"

Faykan actually laughed out loud at Petunia. "You have some nerve, Dursley, trying to hide Harry from who he is, driving others away, and generally being as horrible as possible. I've tolerated it for the last three years for Harry's sake, but no more." He smirked nastily at their shocked looks. "We've both been accepted to Hogwarts, and we won't have to deal with people like you for quite a long while."

"He will absolutely not be going!" Vernon yelled flabbergasted at Faykan's audacity.

"Oh, and you, the great king of the muggles is going to keep him away are you?" Faykan retorted with a curt sarcastic bow.

"What did you call me boy!" Vernon hissed icily.

"A muggle, you know nonmagic folk like you are Dursley." Faykan explained with a wink to Harry. "Now, unless you want some very nasty things to happen, you'll be wise to just step aside and let Harry come with me to get our things for Hogwarts so we can leave in September."

"HE WILL NOT BE GOING!" Vernon roared, grabbing at Faykan, clearly with the intent to throw him forcibly from the house, but before he could reach him, Faykan shoved out a hand and spoke, "_lanta n'alaquel tuulo' amin_"[1] and at once an invisible force threw Uncle Vernon away from the small eleven year old, and he landed in a heap against the kitchen door. Electric sparks seemed to jump around Faykan and the room seemed to quake in fear as he glared at the Dursleys

"Never, attempt to physically harm me Vernon Dursley. You do not want to see my true power." Faykan said coldly as he lowered his hand. Turning to Harry, he motioned to the door and opened it for him to leave. "Let's go Harry; you can stay with me for the next month if you don't want to come back here."

Harry swiftly moved outside and was followed by Faykan, who slammed the door to number four loudly and together they turned and walked down Privet Drive and headed to the closest train station.

"Piter, um I mean Faykan" Harry started, "How did you do that to Uncle Vernon?"

"What you mean when I threw that stupid fat muggle across the room? That was just a simple blasting hex."

Harry hadn't the foggiest what a blasting hex was. In fact he was completely lost in all that had just happened this morning and was feeling slightly dazed. It was all he could do to just keep walking. Faykan, noticing Harry's vacant expression, sat him down on a bus bench and started to explain.

"Harry, I know you are very confused, and I'm going to take all day to explain this if it comes to that, but first off you need to know one important thing. You relatives, the Dursleys, have been keeping many secrets from you. Firstly you are not a normal person, you and I are wizards. We can do magic, just like when you vanished the glass on the snake cage at the zoo."

Faykan started then to answer all of Harry's questions very patiently. When Harry admitted that the Dursleys told him that his parents died in a drunk driving car crash, Faykan leaned over and hugged Harry, apologizing profusely for everything those 'horrid muggles' had lied to him about. He them explain that they were actually murdered by an evil wizard, Lord Voldemort, when Harry was only one year old, and that Harry survived the evil killing curse that Voldemort used to try and kill Harry also.

"But the strangest thing happened, Voldemort's curse rebounded upon himself or something and he just vanished, no one had seen or heard of him for ten years now. That's why you've been named the Boy-Who-Lived. Your name is known throughout our world Harry." Stunned couldn't even begin to describe how Harry felt about this bit of news.

"Harry, we should get going, London isn't getting any closer with us just sitting here." Faykan said standing.

"London?" Harry said stumped. "Why do we need to go to London?"

"It's the only place we can reach that will have all the materials we need for Hogwarts Harry."

Harry finally got up and he and Faykan continued to walk to the train station. When they reached the station and boarded a train that was to depart in five minutes, simply passing the ticket taker without a word to him. As he turned to call after the two boys, Faykan turned and waved him hand speaking the high singing words Harry had heard when Vernon was thrown across the front room of number four. "_Collanta lye anta tuulo' ron rina_," [2] the guard face went blank momentarily and he turned back as if they hadn't been there. When the train finally started to rumble down the tracks towards London, Faykan turned to Harry and showed him the list of Hogwarts require items, since Uncle Vernon never gave back Harry's letter.

"Faykan, don't the letters say that we need to respond via owl post to tell them that were going to attend." Harry asked worriedly. He had no idea when was meant by 'respond via owl'.

"Not a problem, I will handle it when were done getting out things at Diagon Ally." Harry was about to ask what Diagon Ally was when the train arrived at the London station. Faykan had to drag Harry down the street by the arm to get him to keep moving, as Harry kept trying to stop and see everything around them all at once. Thankfully the walk wasn't too terribly long, or else Harry was too wrapped up trying to see everything at once to noticed, because it seemed moments before Faykan was pushing Harry into a dirty pub with a sign saying 'The Leaky Cauldron'. Faykan steered Harry around all the people and tables without either noticing or acknowledging all the stares and whispers they were attracting. The name Harry Potter was circulating and Harry was shocked that everyone seemed to know exactly who he was even with Faykan effectively guiding him toward the back of the pub while simultaneously discouraging anyone from approaching the two boys.

"Hello again Faykan, out for some more shopping in Diagon Ally I see," said the bartender, as he peered at Faykan and Harry. "Who's you friend?"

"No time to chat Tom, we got our Hogwarts letters today and we need to get our things as soon as possible." Faykan retorted dismissively.

Tom was about to push further, but Faykan pulled open the back door and pushed Harry out into a walled courtyard in that was behind the pub. Harry was about to question why all the people were whispering about him, but Faykan was studying the back wall near the trash can. Lifting both hands he spoke again, "_annon edro amin naia lle_." [3] The bricks forming the back wall shuddered, and started to rearrange themselves into an archway that lead to a cobblede street that lead on and out as far as Harry could see.

"Welcome Harry, to Diagon Ally," said Faykan.

He grinned at Harry's amazement as they stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall. Glancing around, Harry desperately wished they could stop and look in all the interesting shop windows, but Faykan was back to dragging him along by the wrist, winding through the throngs of people towards a large white building that rose above any of the other shops.

Faykan only let go of Harry's arm when they finally passed the bronze doors of the magnificent edifice. Faykan proceeded on inside, and by this point Harry thought it was safest to just follow him rather than be dragged anymore, his wrist was feeling slightly sore. As the two boys pass another pair of doors, silver this time, they entered a long hall filled with small creatures with long fingers and pointed beards.

"Faykan, what exactly are those?" Harry asked in a whisper.

"Goblins Harry," Faykan replied as he approached one who didn't look as busy as the others. He coughed softly to attract its attention and the goblin scrutinized the eleven year old with a calculating gaze.

"May I help you young man?" the goblin asked, glancing down from its high stool at the two boys.

"Yes, Misters Harry Potter and Faykan Undol wish to make withdrawals." Faykan replied coolly.

"Do you have your keys?"

"I have mine," said Faykan pulling out a tiny silver key, and then he shot a glance at Harry, "However Mr. Harry Potter does not." He added.

"Then Mr. Harry Potter needs to submit to a brief blood test to confirm his identity and receive a replacement key," the goblin stated as it examined the tarnished key that Faykan gave him. "This key is in order." The goblin then slipped off its stool and moved toward Harry, motioning for him to hold out his arm. Harry did so and winced as the goblin pricked his thumb with a small crystal needle. When a small drop of blood trickled down the crystal, gold writing wrote itself along the handle, spelling out _Harry James Potter_ in small letters.

"Very good, one moment please Mr. Potter," the goblin snapped its fingers and a small golden key flew from somewhere and sailed into its hand. The goblin then handed the key to Harry, and motioned for them to follow it deeper into the hall. The goblin held the door open for the two boys and the walked through to find a small platform with a metal cart waiting with a goblin inside who was introduced as Griphook. Harry climbed in, followed by Faykan, and they started off at a tremendous speed. As they plunged down into the depths of the bank, Faykan let out a whoop of pure delight, and Harry noticed that the cart wasn't being steered by any mechanisms or controls.

As quickly as the cart started, it stopped again next to a protruding ledge. Griphook hopped out and walked over to the far wall where a small door was inlaid into the rock.

"Vault six hundred eighty seven," said Griphook, "key please." Harry handed the goblin his small golden key, and stood back as the goblin unlocked the large padlock on the door and swung it open. As the light reflected off the mounds of metal coins within, Harry let out an audible gasp of astonishment. It was more money than he hade ever seen in his lifetime.

"I'd explain the money system to you Harry, however you have enough money that it won't matter a lot right this moment and you'll pick it up quickly enough." Faykan said with a grin. He then helped Harry fill a bag with the golden coins that he called Galleons. They then piled back into the cart and sped off through the tunnels until they arrived at vault number two hundred sixteen, and after Griphook opened the silver door that was slightly larger than Harry's had been, Harry though his eyes would fall out of their sockets. Not only were there piles of money, at least three times larger than in Harry's vault, but there were a shelves in the back of the vault that held a variety of strange looking objects, including a large sword that was hung on the wall next to the shelves. Faykan piled a similar bag full of gold just as Harry had and he ushered Harry back into the cart to take the wild ride back up to the surface.

As the two boys exited Gringotts, Faykan sighed to himself, "Those cart rides never last long enough," he moaned. Harry laughed out loud at his friend's longing look back at the marble building as they started back up the ally.

"We might as well get our robes first." Faykan said, pointing at 'Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions'. "I mean, its probably going to take the longest and be the most boring, but since its right there…" Harry simply shrugged and they walked into the store together. Inside a squat witch with a bright smile bustled out of the back and made her way over to them. "Hogwarts dears?" she said and Faykan and Harry both nodded. "Been getting loads today, another young man is being fitted up right now, I can take one of you now, but the other will have to wait a bit."

"I'll wait until Harry is finished," Faykan said before Harry could offer to wait, "We both want full compliments for first years as well as day robes for home if you don't mind." He added as an afterthought. Madam Malkin beamed at that, and guided them both into the rear of the store.

[1] _lanta n'alaquel tuulo' amin : Fall away from myself_

_[2] __Collanta lye anta tuulo' ron rina : Mask our faces from their memories_

___[3] __annon edro amin naia lle : Door open i command you_

_____* Piter De Vries comes from the Dune series by Frank Herbert_


	4. Chapter 3

**Review please. Winds of encouragement sailing through the medow of my thoughts.**

**Chapter Three**

**Diagon Ally**

Draco Malfoy was getting impatient with the witch who was taking an extraordinary long time pinning up his robes to the correct length when he heard the bell chime, signaling that new customers had entered Madam Malkin's shop. 'Oh good, I hope father or mother has returned to keep me company' he thought. But it wasn't either of his parents; it was two other boys close to his own age. Both had black hair, but one's was more of a messy mop while the other's was shoulder length and wavier. The slightly taller boy, who was still shorter than Draco himself, had green eyes and glasses and looked incredibly nervous, while the shorter had crystal blue and almost radiated confidence. 'Well at least it's some people to talk to' Draco thought eyeing the seamstress as she led the taller boy onto a stool next to him. The shorter boy stayed close by and eyed Draco for a moment, before turning back to his friend.

"Hello," Draco finally said, "Hogwarts, too?

"Indeed." The shorter boy answered giving Draco a small nod, the other boy, prevented from looking at Draco properly by Madam Malkin, and simply craned his neck to try as far as she would allow, getting a look at Draco.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," Draco said tiredly. "Then I'm going to drag them off to take a look at racing brooms. I still don't see why first years can't bring theirs. I think I'll try and bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow." Neither boy reacted much to that so Draco continued on "Have either of you got your own brooms?"

"I did at one point," the shorter boy commented absently, "But it was a long time ago and I got to busy to replace it when it wore out." Meanwhile the taller boy on the stool just stood quietly. Draco decided to press the smaller boy instead.

"Played Quidditch at all when you had it?"

"Not really," the boy responded, "didn't really have enough friends to play it properly with," nodding knowingly at the other boy; he continued "Harry here was really my only friend for a while now, isn't that right Harry?" Draco could tell the boy was trying to include his friend, but seeing how the boy didn't seem to want to respond, Draco continued to ignore him.

"Well, I do, Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house team, and I must say I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"Quite cocky in your abilities aren't you?" the other boy countered grinning at Draco, "Actually I have a pretty good idea what house I'll be in. But I think I'll wait for the hat to decide before I shoot down its suggestion, it's only fair, don't you think?" both Draco and the other boy snorted at that.

Draco was starting to like this boy quite a bit, his quiet friend, he wasn't sure about, but he decided he would wait before passing judgment, for now. "Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they," he grunted, "But I know I'll be in Slytherin, all my family has been, imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"Would depend I guess, although I doubt either of us will go into Hufflepuff. Were both far too intelligent and cunning to be sorted in with that lot I believe." The boy said lazily. The taller boy, Harry, kept stealing glances between his friend and Draco, and Draco thought he could see a bit of confusion mixed with the nervous fear the boy was displaying.

Draco thought it might be time to bring the conversation to more recent topics. "So, are you two here with anybody?"

"No" the shorter boy responded "Just us two."

"Why is that?" Draco asked almost genuinely concerned. It wasn't that usual for underage wizards or witches to go anywhere without a parent or guardian around. "Don't your parents care that you're here alone?"

The shorter boy glanced nervously at Harry, and then recovered quickly. "Our parents are dead," he said quietly.

"Faykan…" Harry started but Draco accidentally cut him off. "Oh I'm sorry to hear that." He said as sincerely as he could. Faykan gave him a small smile. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

Faykan stiffened immediately, "Yes, they were." He said shortly.

Before Draco could continue with his thoughts, Madam Malkin said to Harry with a smile, "Your done dear, you can wait right there while I measure up your friend."

As the two boys switched Draco got a good look at the boy called Harry. He looked thin, and the clothes he was wearing appeared to be at least four sizes too large for him. But before he could say anything, Faykan continued the conversation where it left off.

"Why did you ask us if our parents were wizarding kind, seems a very rude thing to say."

Draco was taken aback slightly; clearly this boy had a spine larger than his body. However seeing how it didn't affect either of the brothers, he assumed they might be brothers, he answered truthfully:

"I just don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same; they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families... What's your surname, anyway?"

The shorter boy frowned, but appeared to be pondering how he was going to answer. A moment later he responded, "Well, to answer your questions in order asked: yes, I do think they should let the 'other' sort in, if what you mean are half bloods and muggleborns, yes, I think their just the same, yes, I can imagine that they could never have heard of Hogwarts, no, I don't think we should only let the 'pureblood' families be the only ones with magical learning since they're slowly dying out. And finally…" he paused and looked at Harry, seeking permission. Harry shrugged not seeing how it could hurt, and Faykan continued, "I am Faykan Undol 'the eighth', and he, is Harry Potter, Ouch!" he said jumping as a shocked Madam Malkin accidentally jabbed him with a needle.

Draco was thunderstruck, not only did this boy think all his pureblood ideals were rubbish, but he WAS a pureblood, and his friend, his FRIEND was HARY POTTER!

"You're Harry Potter!" Draco said, turning to look at the other boy, jaw hanging a foot off the floor.

"Yes." Harry replied coolly.

"And," Faykan added, "Harry here has grown up with muggles for the last ten years, so what do you say to that Mr. I'm-A-Pure-Blood-Elitist-Prat!"

Horrified, Draco started to backpedal like made "Well… Um… I…" he stammered not finding anything he could say that could alleviate the situation.

"It's alright," Faykan said finally. "Firstly you didn't know, and secondly it won't matter, since Harry and I will more than likely be in Gryffindor like his parents."

With that Faykan hopped off the stool, as Madam Malkin had finished with him as well, and the two boys made their way to leave, after paying for their robes, which were to be owled to Mrs. Figg's house in Little Whinging.

"Wait, please!" Draco called out after them, but Faykan only sternly replied. "See you at Hogwarts, I suppose." And he walked off.

Draco scowled, angry at himself for messing up so badly. 'Damn it,' he thought.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry was really quiet after the whole 'Malkin' event, as Faykan deemed it, as he was still rubbing the spot where she had accidently stabbed him. He spent a good half hour explaining everything that was talked about inside the store, from Quidditch, which Harry learned was a game played on broomsticks, to Gryffindor, Slytherin and Hufflepuff, which were three of the four houses at Hogwarts.

After meeting the pale pointed faced boy, Harry decided he didn't like him a whole lot, but Faykan said not to judge him too harshly, as purebloods unfortunately tended to teach their children to be a bit stuck up and rude.

Afterward, they went to a bookshop called Flourish and Blotts and bought all their required books for the year. Faykan literally had to drag Harry away from some of the more advanced spell books, saying he wasn't even close to ready to touch, let alone read those books. The two friends then bought their cauldrons and potion supplies, visited the Apothecary for the ingredients they would need. Then finally, the two boys wandered over toward the last shop they needed anything from, Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.. Before they went in, Harry felt the familiar tug on his wrist as Faykan dragged him back to a dark shop that said on a sign over it 'Eeylops Owl Emporium'.

"Why are we going in here Faykan?" Harry asked, as the list said pets were only optional.

"We're going to go get you your birthday present, of course!" Faykan said excitedly. He pushed Harry inside and basically ordered him to choose an owl for his gift. Harry, slightly embarrassed, eyed a beautiful snowy owl resting peacefully with its head under its wing. Faykan noticed Harry's looks of wonder as he watched the white bird sleep and poked him in the ribs.

"Is that the one you want Harry?" he quested. Harry wanted to say yes so badly, but he didn't want to make Faykan pay too much just for a simple pet. But, before he could tear his eyes away, Faykan reached over and picked up the cage, carrying it to the front desk and purchased the bird for him. As they left Harry could only stammer his thanks until Faykan stopped him by placing a hand over his mouth.

"Enough Harry, I was more than happy to buy her for you. You're my best friend and I NEVER; want you to think you aren't worth any material possession, provided it's within reasonably limits of one thousand galleons or less." He said with a chuckle.

As they entered Ollivanders, the two boys heard the tinkling of a bell ring somewhere in the back of the store, and for a moment or two the milled about in the front, neither wanting to really sit on the spindly chair nearby, as it looked really old and fragile. They were both so in awe of the pure sensation of magic around where there were that they didn't notice an old man walk up to the other side of the counter until he cleared his voice, making them jump slightly.

"Good afternoon," he said in a soft voice.

"Hello," said Harry, who was closer to the man.

"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. 'Those silvery eyes are a bit creepy' Harry thought. "Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand, eleven inches, pliable, a little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it but it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes. "And that's where..."

Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly.

"Thirteen and a half inches, yew, powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."

He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Faykan.

"I'm sorry dear boy, but I'm afraid I don't know who you are." Mr. Ollivander said greatly troubled, "Who are your parents?"

Clearing his throat, Faykan said "They were Lord Faykan Undol the seventh and Lady Tari, sir."

Mr. Ollivander stared at Faykan in the eye for a moment, and then rocked back on his heels slightly, shaking his head. "Hmm, I don't believe your family has ever bought their wands from me before. However, I'll never turn down new business." He said smiling slightly

"Well, now, Mr. Potter, Mr. Undol. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which are your wand arms?"

"Err, well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.

"Left…" Faykan said confidently.

"Hold out your arms. That's it." He measured both Harry and Faykan from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We mainly use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons, but we have other, rarer cores. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

After he measured them in every conceivable way, he finally bustled into the back of his shop, pulling down many different long thin boxes. When he had gathered two or three full armloads onto the front desk, he started opening them one by one and handing the wands to either boy as he rattled off the wood, length and core of each wand. What felt like an hour later, Faykan finally had a wand that Mr. Ollivander seemed satisfied with, 'Elm and giant eagle feather, eleven inches, rather rigid, good for defensive magic' he had said. When Faykan waved it as instructed by Mr. Ollivander, a shower of blue, green, and silver sparks came cascading out of the end. Harry on the other hand, took considerably longer, until, muttering about tricky customers; Mr. Ollivander pulled out a dusty box out of the very back of the store, and walked around to stand next to Harry. Pulling out the wand he handed it gingerly to Harry.

Harry took the wand. He felt sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls.

Faykan whooped in delight and Mr. Ollivander said "Well, well, well… how curious… how very curious…"

When Harry had asked him what he meant by 'curious' and Mr. Ollivander explained that he could remember every single wand he ever sold, and that the phoenix feather core of Harry's new wand was a brother to the wand that gave him his scar. Since Faykan had already explained about how Harry had received that scar, he couldn't help himself when he muttered "Voldemort."

"We do not speak his name." Mr. Ollivander said (at that Faykan scoffed loudly but Mr. Ollivander ignored it) and he explained that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had done great things, terrible, but great and that he expected Harry to also be destined for great things.

Harry was quiet for the entire trip back to Mrs. Figg's house in Little Whinging. Faykan didn't disturb him, seeming to know that Harry wanted time to mull over the days events. As Harry climbed into the second guest room's bed at the Figg residence he couldn't help but wonder why everyone seemed to be afraid of Voldemort's name, except for Faykan of course. He was just thinking about how brave people must view Faykan to be to say the name no one else would when he drifted off to sleep.


	5. Chapter 4

**Don't forget to Review. They function as pebbles that start an avalanche.**

**Chapter Four**

**The Road to Hogwarts**

Harry's last month before Hogwarts was probably the best time he ever had. Mrs. Figg was nicer to Harry than he had ever remembered her being, he presumed at Faykan's urging. At first Harry was worried about her reaction to all his and Faykan's magical things that they had bought, but when the owls swooped in to deliver their stuff, she didn't bat an eye. Faykan told him when Harry brought it up that she was a squib, or a nonmagic child born to magical parents.

Faykan had outlined all the time during their last two months before school started for both Harry and himself to study their books, and for Harry to practice writing with a quill, because pens tended to react poorly with the kind of parchment used in the wizarding world, and pencils wouldn't show up well either. When they chose to relax from studying, Harry liked to take his owl, which he chose to name Hedwig, outside and watch her fly around. Faykan came too occasionally taking his pet raven, which he called Roac, to join Hedwig in the air.

Harry woke up early the morning of September the first, and was far too excited to go back to sleep. As he crept to out of his room he almost knocked down Faykan, who was about to open Harry's door.

"Cant sleep?" Faykan asked.

"Nope, you?"

"Na, too nervous," Faykan grinned at him. "Get dressed, I'll go and see about getting us some breakfast."

Several minutes later, Harry having decided to wear regular muggle clothes until they got onto the train, he walked into the kitchen following the smells of sausages and eggs that were awaiting him at the table. Neither Faykan nor Harry spoke while they ate, and afterward they returned to their rooms to finish packing up the last of their possessions. When they returned, Mrs. Figg was sitting at the table with a cup of tea sitting in front of her, while she read the Daily Prophet.

"Morning boys," she said happily "Just let me finish up here, and well be on out way to King's Cross."

The car ride went by rather quickly, at least Harry thought so. Faykan helped Harry pack their trunks and bird cages onto two carts and Mrs. Figg waved to them as they entered the station before driving off. They walked briskly until they reached the small area between platforms nine and ten, then Faykan stopped looking puzzled.

"Uh oh," he said worriedly, "Not to worry you, but I believe I forgot how we get onto the platform Harry"

Harry started to panic slightly at that, until they turned as the boys overheard a nearby plump woman talking to a group of four boys as they walked toward the barrier between the platforms. The only reason they even noticed was because she had mentioned the word muggle, and they noticed that they had similar trunks and even owl cages. The boys watched as the bright red haired family walked straight through the solid wall between the platforms one by one, disappearing into it as if it wasn't there.

"Ah ha," Faykan exclaimed, "Now I remember, lets go Harry." They started to the wall they saw the family disappear into, slightly jostled by the crowd. Harry was slightly worried by the seemingly solid wall, but followed behind Faykan quietly until they were right next to the wall. With a little push from his friend, Harry leaned against the wall, and was shocked as he stumbled backward through it, pulling his cart behind him. Turning around to look behind him, his eyes met a scarlet steam engine waiting next to a people packed platform. Someone nudged him from behind, and Harry moved as Faykan came through the wall illusion, grinning like a madman.

Faykan led Harry down the platform until they found an empty compartment, where they stowed their pets and were just lifting Harry's trunk onto the train when one of the red haired boys they'd followed through the barrier came and started to help with the trunk, as they were struggling with it.

"Hey, you two look like you could use a hand. Oof! What you got in this thing, bricks?" The boy joked good-naturedly.

Between the three of them they finally managed to get the trunk into the empty compartment. Panting for breath, the three boys collapsed onto the seats, and Harry brushed his sweaty bangs away from his eyes.

"Hey, what's that on your head?" said the taller, red haired boy, who had finally regained sufficient oxygen to speak.

"Oh, it's nothing." Harry said, moving his hair back to hide the scare the boy partially saw.

Before the boy could press Harry any further, Faykan interjected, "So, who are you then?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm Ron Weasley." The boy said holding his hand out towards Faykan, who took it.

"Faykan Undol." He replied. Ron then turned to Harry, who smiling, took the offered hand and shook it formally.

"And I'm Harry. Harry Potter." Ron's eyes widened in awe as his eyes jumped from Harry's hand to his forehead and back again.

"Then that's where…" he said pointing at his own forehead timidly.

"Yeah it is, but he doesn't remember anything about it." Faykan said for Harry.

"Oh… guess that's probably for the best though, you think?" Ron said, slightly disappointed.

Harry and Ron then spent the next hour questioning each other about the magical world, from Harry, and about living with muggles, from Ron. Faykan sat quietly, letting Harry lead the conversation, and Ron told them about his five brothers Charlie, Bill, Fred, George, and Percy, who all had either left Hogwarts or were in upper years than them. Faykan finally chimed in, asking about the rat that Ron had pulled out of a pocket midway into his and Harry's conversation.

"Oh, this is Scabbers. He used to be Percy's rat, but he got an owl when he was made a prefect, so I got him. He rather useless though…"

Harry had noticed that all of Ron's things looked rather worn and patched in places, but didn't comment on it. He listened as Faykan told Ron about how he and Harry had met, and their time in Diagon Ally.

"Can you believe that his family never told him about his parents or him being a wizard or Voldemort or anything?"

Ron gasped at that.

"What?" said Harry.

"He said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron said, sounding shocked and impressed at the same time.

Faykan just rolled his eyes. "Honestly, it's not like he's the scariest dark lord who ever lived, or even the most powerful. Not saying his name is just stupid."

Just about that time a witch pushing a cart stopped outside their compartment, slid open the door, and said, "Anything off the trolley dears?"

Faykan leaped to his feet and before Harry or Ron could say anything, walked over to the witch and purchase some of everything on the cart for the three of them. Turning back with his arms full of sweets Harry had never seen before, Faykan tipped them on the empty seat next to Ron gestured for Harry to pick what he please. "On me friends," He said.

Harry leaned over to get a good look at some of the candies. What he saw were strange things like Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. The three boys enjoyed picking their way through the pile of sweets. Harry really enjoyed the pasties, and got an 'Albus Dumbledore' card from a Chocolate Frog pack. Ron laughed when Faykan made a face after pouring a large handful of Every Flavor Beans into his mouth all at once and Harry had to slap his back a few times until he could breathe again.

Faykan finally suggested that it was about time that they changed into their robes, so they wouldn't have to at the last minute. As Harry was pulling the robes over his head, he heard Ron give another cry of surprise.

"Bloody hell what's on your back?"

Harry pulled his head through the neck hole to see Ron pointing, horror struck, at Faykan's bare back, him having just removed his shirt. Faykan's back was incredibly pale, but traveling down on either side of his spine were grayish-black spiraling lines, almost like twin intersecting snakes. The lines circled down both his arms, up to his neck, and disappeared below the waistline of his trousers where Harry could only assume that they continued down much farther. Harry wondered why he hadn't ever noticed these before. It occurred to his that he hadn't ever seen Faykan without a long sleeve shirt ever.

"Hmm," Faykan said without any concern. "Oh those, their just tattoos that my family had put on me when I was little, my father and grandfather had similar ones also."

Ron looked like he was going to be sick. Faykan simply shrugged and pulled his robes on to hide them, and Harry could see only the very top of them on either side of his neck.

Just then the compartment door slid open and a round faced boy came in with a bushy haired girl next to him. She was already wearing her robes on and looked very concerned.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, and slightly large front teeth.

Harry and Ron shook their heads, but Faykan had his back turned to her as he was pulling out his wand. The girl, noticing the wand in his hand, ignored both Harry and Ron and focused intently on Faykan.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

Faykan turned to look at her, slightly puzzled, but recovered quickly.

"Actually no, but if you insist," he said waving the wand in his hand, "_Accio_ Toad!" A second later, a small toad zoomed out of the corridor, past Neville and soared into Faykan's opposite hand.

"Trevor!" Neville cried, holding out his hand for his pet. The girl looked both impressed and slightly shocked. "But, that was a summoning charm… That's fourth year magic. How could you possibly know that? Oh I knew that the extra books I bought weren't going to be enough to catch up." The girl plopped down and actually started to cry.

"Whoa calm down Miss…" Faykan said, sitting next to her comfortingly

"Hermione Granger." She sniffed between sobs.

"…Granger, I'm actually very advanced when it comes to magical learning. I can honestly say that you defiantly will not be behind anyone else." Faykan said softly, patting her arm.

She sniffed again, and wiped her eyes on her robes. "I'm sorry, I'm being silly; of course your right." She said standing up again. "So, what are your names?" she said looking between Faykan, Harry and Ron.

"I'm Faykan Undol," Faykan started, "that's Ron Weasley, and that's Harry Potter." He said pointing to each in turn.

"Are you really?" Hermione said, turning to Harry. "I know all about you, of course. You in three different history books I got for background reading. You see, neither of my parents is magic. It was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased. Do any of you know what house you'll be in? I hope I'm in Gryffindor, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be so bad. Anyway we'd better go, I expect well be arriving soon." She turned to leave, but quickly turned back to Ron and said, "You've got dirt on your nose, did you know? Just there," she said indicating a spot on her own nose. Ron scowled, and rubbed at the spot only after she and Neville left the compartment.

The three boys looked at each other afterward, shrugged and settled back down to wait out the rest of the trip to Hogwarts, but not a few minutes later their compartment door opened again, and the same pale faced boy that Harry and Faykan had seen in Madam Malkin's shop came in, flanked by two of the largest eleven year olds that Harry had ever seen.

"So it's true then," the pale boy said. "You _are_ in this car, Harry."

"Clearly…" Harry said shortly.

The boy turned to his companions then "Wait outside." He said, and they vacated, closing the door behind them and standing outside it. The boy turned back looked slightly nervous, and shifted on his feet several times before finally blurting out. "Look, I'm really sorry for what happened in Diagon Ally. I didn't mean to insult either of you. Had I know who you where I probably wouldn't have even said those things." He had a pleading look in his eyes and Harry could tell he was being sincere, or at least trying to be. Faykan looked as though he wanted to forgive the boy, but he glanced at Harry, saying with his eyes that it was his decision and his alone.

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Draco watched as Harry Potter sat there with his friends, Faykan, and a red haired boy Draco was certain could only be a Weasley. 'Oh goodie, now I'll have to put up with a Weasel if I want to befriend Potter.' Summoning up the last of his courage, Draco let out a short breath and plunged on. "Could we please just start over?" he pleaded, and noticed that Harry was eyeing his two bodyguards who were standing outside the door, buffering anyone away from the compartment by cracking their knuckles menacingly.

"Oh, those are Crabbe and Goyle," Draco said hesitantly, "And my name is Draco, Draco Malfoy." The red haired boy coughed, but it sounded like he was trying to hide a snigger. Draco's cheeks pinked slightly, but he tried his best to ignore him. Harry looked like he wasn't actually considering his offer, and Draco almost was about to turn and leave dejectedly when Faykan spoke up.

"Malfoy…Malfoy where have I heard that name before…" he said tapping his chin in thought. "Oh, I remember my father told me about a Lucius Malfoy he went to Hogwarts with. Wouldn't that be your dad, Draco?"

"Yes actually," Draco said proudly, puffing out his chest a little.

"Hey, Ron didn't you say that your dad and Lucius Malfoy didn't get along too well?" Faykan said to the red haired boy, confirming to Draco that he was indeed Arthur Weasley's progeny.

"Yea," Ron said with a smirk, "my dad said all the Malfoys are nothing but slimy dark wizard gits." Draco balled up his fists in anger, but held his tongue, knowing that the Weasley boy was only trying to goad him into doing something that would tip him out of Potter's favor. His jaw dropped when Faykan spoke again.

"Now, now Ron, don't judge the sons for the sins of their fathers. I'm sure an eleven year old boy couldn't be a dark wizard," turning to Harry, Faykan continued, "I think we should forgive him and let him in our little group, what do you think Harry?"

Harry finally nodded, and agreed. Draco almost let out a whoop of pleasure, but kept his composure. Sitting down at Faykan's request, they started chatting about what they could expect to encounter during their years at Hogwarts. When the subject turned to Quidditch, Ron finally came out of his shell and added in his two cents. Draco noticed that Harry just sat quietly, listening to the by play of his three friends, and he nudged Faykan to point it out.

"Hey Harry," Faykan started, "didn't you know your father played chaser for the Gryffindor team when he was at Hogwarts?" Harry's face lit up at that.

"Really?" he said in awe.

"Yeah," Faykan replied, grinning, "He was a natural flyer from what I heard my dad say. They were at school for only three years together, but he said that he hadn't seen a better flyer in all his years at Hogwarts."

Harry looked like was going to press Faykan for all the information he knew about his dad, when a voice echoed throughout the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time." The voice continued to say that they were expected to leave their luggage on the train, as it would be brought up separately for them.

"So," Faykan said at last as the train started slowing down, "I think we should agree that no matter what houses were put in, we should pledge to always be at least friendly toward each other." Taking a long look at both Ron and Draco, he continued, "Also, I think we should not allow past events or family matters dissuade us from doing what we see fit concerning what happens at Hogwarts, agreed?"

Draco saw Harry nodding almost immediately, so he immediately accepted the terms also. Turning to Ron, who had a small scowl on his face directly at Draco, Harry poked him slightly in the stomach, and he jumped. "Oh, alright then." He said finally, and they all shook hands on it.

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The four boys crammed the last remnants of the sweets into their pockets and left the compartment, to join the throng of vacating students.

"I'll see you when we get inside." Draco called, moving over to Crabbe and Goyle, and they moved off back to their own compartment, presumably to get some of their own things before disembarking.

Harry shivered in the cold night air as they left the train. Then Faykan pointed out a lamp that came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a loud booming voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All Firs' years over to me" A giant man came wading through the sea of students, and Faykan, Ron, and Harry scrambled over to look up at him. The giant man beamed down when he saw Harry.

"An' here's Harry!" the giant said "Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby, yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."

"And, who might you be?" Faykan said, slightly defensively, as he moved to stand next to Harry.

"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

Hagrid, then called out again for first years to follow him, and he led them all down a narrow path to the edge of a great black lake. Faykan talked with Hagrid as they walked, questioning him about his job as gamekeeper, and many other things. Hagrid had all the children pile in four to a boat, which were sitting on the edge nearest their group. Faykan, Ron and Harry piled into a boat, to be followed later by the bushy haired Hermione. After everyone was seated, Hagrid's loud voice boomed out the command for the boats to move forward across the lake all on their own.

Everyone was quite as the boats rounded a corner, and many people gasped as the magnificent cast emerged into their view. They all got out when the boats reached and underground harbor, directly underneath the castle, and they followed the bobbing light of Hagrid's lamp until they reached the huge oak front doors.


	6. Chapter 5

**Review please! Add flame to the towering inferno of my design.**

**Chapter Five**

**First Week of Term**

Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master of Hogwarts, sat at the staff table in the Great Hall, idly listening to the stuttering rambles of Quirrell, the current Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. Snape did not like Quirrell in the slightest, as he did most of the other teachers, but as head of Slytherin House, be maintained a cool composition when dealing with the other staff members. Thankfully, Professor McGonagall finally brought in the first year students, thus silencing the babbling professor as they sat to watch the sorting.

Snape scanned the lines of students, looking for potential new Slytherins. He noticed Draco Malfoy almost immediately, but paused at the two black haired boys that he was walking with. Both struck him as familiar in some way. One looked almost like the spitting image of his old nemesis James Potter, so he presumed that it must be the great and famous Harry Potter. Snape smirked; he would enjoy enacting a small taste of what the boy's father had done to him while he was in school. As Snape scanned the rest of the students, his eyes kept being draw back to the second raven haired boy beside Potter. Could it be, Snape wondered. The boy looked just like an old friend who had left Hogwarts in Snape's third year. He decided to watch the group of boys during the sorting. He noted how confidently the boy acted as he chatted quietly with Potter and Draco during the sorting hat's song. The boy seemed completely calm, which was odd considering that every other child looked ready to bolt out the door at the first loud noise.

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Harry stood nervously as the hat was place on student after student, calling out one of the four houses each time. Draco was right when he said he was going to be put into Slytherin, because the hat had barley touched him when it cried out the name of the house. Harry's heart hammered when his name was finally called. As the hat was dropped on his head, terrifying thoughts kept plaguing what was left of his confidence that Faykan had been keeping built up during the song.

Harry almost gasped when the sorting hat's voice sounded inside his head.

"Hmm, difficult, very difficult, Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, my goodness yes, and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that is interesting… but where to put you. Not Hufflepuff, your talents wouldn't be tested enough, but sadly Ravenclaw would drown you with your intellect, no offence my boy. Now Slytherin, that's a thought. You could be great you know, and Slytherin would help you on the way, no doubt about that. Hmm, but you seem too noble to use their ways to the fullest. So, better be… GRYFFINDOR!"

The hall exploded! Harry took off the hat and made his way to the Gryffindor table, getting slaps on the back and handshakes from his new housemates along the way. When Harry sat down, he turned to face the front, and watched the last four new first years yet to be sorted. Ron looked like a bundle of nerves, standing between Faykan and a tall black boy who had just been called. Harry looked at Faykan, and noticed that despite Faykan's cool front that he was portraying, Harry could tell with three years of knowing the boy that he was actually nervous, not nearly so as Ron, but just enough that Harry could tell in the way his mouth twitched every few moments. Then it was time:

"Undol, Faykan!" McGonagall called, and he confidently walked forward and let her drop the sorting hat upon his head.

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When the young black haired boy came forward, Severus Snape almost choked on his drink. Faykan Undol? Severus stole a glance at Dumbledore, who was watching with intense curiosity just as Snape was feeling himself. He had known a Faykan Undol when he was at school, but surely it couldn't be this same boy.

The hall sat quietly while the hat hummed and pulsated upon the boy's head. Finally, five full minutes after being placed on Faykan's head the hat called out. "SLYTH…" but stopped. Faykan's face couldn't be seen, because the hat was draped over the young boy's head so far only his mouth was visible, but it had clenched when the hat had started to cry out. There was a deafening silence as the entire hall watched the longest sorting that anyone could remember. Nearly twenty minutes later, the hat finally sighed and called out gruffly, "Fine you stubborn boy, GRYFFINDOR!"

Snape was as shocked at the rest of the hall. Never in all his years at Hogwarts, learning or teaching, had anyone managed to force the sorting hat to change its mind once it had chosen a house. But as the boy yanked the hat off his head and dropped it carelessly on the stool, Severus could tell from his face that the boy not only had changed the hat's mind, but had _meant_ to do it. Could the boy have actually known what the hat was going to do? Shooting another look at the Headmaster, who was still watching the boy behind those obnoxious twinkling eyes, Severus could tell that his mentor's curiosity had also been peaked.

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Harry clapped loudly for both Faykan and Ron, who had also been put into Gryffindor quickly compared to Faykan's twenty five minutes under the hat. The other first year Gryffindor boys had all given Faykan long looks that could have been interpreted as awe, or fear. Faykan wouldn't tell Harry what had gone on during his extra long sorting, but whatever it was, it had left him slightly drained.

After the last boy, Blaise Zabini had been sorted into Slytherin; Dumbledore stood up and gave the shortest speech Harry had ever heard in his life: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Both Harry and Faykan laughed, however Faykan's had lasted longer as Harry wasn't sure that the Headmaster was being serious or not.

"He's not mad is he?" Harry asked the people around him.

"Mad?" said Percy, Ron's prefect older brother, "Well, a bit but he's still a genius. Best wizard in the world."

Faykan mumbled something then, that sounded something like 'at least this part of the world' but at the same instant, the golden plates in front of all of them magically filled with every food Harry could ever imagine.

As they ate, Harry stole a short glance at the Slytherin table, and saw Draco give his a brisk nod before turning to chat with his housemates.

"Don't suppose it'll be easy to spend time with Draco will it?" Harry whispered to Faykan and Ron.

"Hopefully not… Ouch! I mean sadly," Ron said after a sharp jab in the ribs from Faykan.

"Gryffindors and Slytherins don't traditionally get along too well," Faykan explained, "But we will have some classes with them and there's always the weekends that we can spend catching up with him."

"Oh, good, I guess." Harry sighed in relief. He hadn't been looking forward to not seeing one of his friends for over a week, but it was better than losing him entirely right?

After the desserts had finally disappeared, Dumbledore stood up again and starting to give out the new school year's start of term announcements; explaining that the forest on the edge of the grounds was off limits, that magic was not to be used in between classes.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Dumbledore added as a last minute notice.

A few people laughed, but Harry didn't since the news wasn't very funny to him. Faykan looked slightly concerned when the Headmaster had mentioned it, but he wouldn't comment when Harry asked what the matter was. Finally all the students were dismissed to go to the respective house dorms, and Percy led the first years out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase. Harry felt very tired so he didn't pay much attention to where they were being led, until he crashed into Faykan's back when they abruptly stopped.

A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.

"Peeves, show yourself" Percy called out

A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered. There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross- legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.

Percy started arguing with the little man, threatening him with the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost, when Faykan walked up to stand next to Percy.

"Oooooooh!" Peeves said, with an evil cackle. "An Ickle Firstie! What fun!"

He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked, except Faykan, who simple waved his wand and called out "_auta a' kai"[1]_.

Peeves screamed, and exploded in a shower of sparks that drifted to the floor. Faykan simple turned, gestured to Percy to remove his mouth from the floor and lead on, and returned to walk with Harry.

Percy lead the first years, shooting the occasional glace at Faykan, until they were standing in front of a large painting of a very fat woman in a pink dress, who asked for a password which Percy gave. (Caput Draconis) The portrait then swung forward and they all stepped through it into the Gryffindor common room. After giving the first years the directions to where their dormitories were, Percy and the rest of the first year boys went up a spiral staircase to find, at the very top room, an oak door with a plaque reading. 'First Years' Inside were six four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains, each with their individual trunks awaiting them at the foot. Harry, Ron, Faykan, and the three other Gryffindor boys; Neville, Dean, and Shamus were far too tired to chat, so they all collapsed into their beds after changing into pajamas and immediately went to sleep.

The next day didn't go too well for Faykan or Harry, as the information of what Faykan had done to Peeves had somehow traveled the entire school that night and Harry's being, well Harry. It started in the morning as the first years were getting ready for the day, when the other three boy in their dorm finally noticed Faykan's tattoos. Harry and Ron laughed when the other three boys gaped at Faykan's back when they thought he wasn't looking. Harry wasn't surprised to find that Faykan's strange marks went the entire length on his legs to his ankles as well. Fortunately, Neville, Dean, and Shamus didn't appear to have the nerve to ask Faykan about them, so Harry and Ron didn't pay them any mind about it. The strange looks remained on both Harry and his best friends as they left Gryffindor tower for breakfast either.

"Those two, next to the tall kid with the red hair."

"The two black haired boys?"

"Did you hear what he did?"

"Did you see his scar?"

The whispers were starting to get to Harry, but Faykan just put an arm around him and murmured in his hear that he'd better get used to it, cause it wasn't going to go away. It didn't help Harry much, but it still felt slightly better that Faykan and Ron were with him. Harry was worried that they would get lost for sure in the gigantic castle, but it seemed that Faykan had a mental compass inside him, because not only did they make it down to the Great Hall on time, they had used several secret passages that Harry or Ron would have never noticed otherwise.

When they finished eating, Professor McGonagall had come around and handed them all their class schedules. Noticing that theirs were all the same, Faykan mentioned that they would be until about third year, they followed him and his excellent sense of direction up to History of Magic.

Harry had almost jumped out of his skin when their teacher, Professor Binns, glided through the chalkboard and immediately started to lecture in a sad monotone voice that almost immediately had two thirds of the class asleep at their desks. The only people who seemed to be immune were Hermione Granger, and Faykan. Harry was about to fall asleep himself, when a bit of parchment fluttered in front of his nose. Grabbing it he read:

'_Boring enough is it? The giant man, Hagrid, invited me over to his hut on the grounds Friday afternoon, would you like to come with me?'_

Harry quickly wrote a reply _'I'd love to'_ on the back and passed the parchment back to his best friend. They continued to write back and forth to each other the rest of the class, earning a glare from Hermione, who was seated behind them. She didn't say anything to them however, until after the lesson was over.

"You are aware, that you won't be able to get away with passing note in classes, aren't you?" she said, with an air of superiority.

"Naturally, but since all of Binns' information is dead wrong, what's the point of paying attention in there?" Faykan countered, earning several sniggers from the surrounding first years.

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Faykan held up his hand, "Were not going to do it in all our classes Hermione, why do you even care? It's not like were talking out loud."

She finally huffed and walked ahead of them, arriving only slightly ahead of them in the Charms classroom.

Professor Flitwick was a tiny little wizard who stood on a pile of books to see over his own desk. At the start of class he read off the roll, and when he reached Harry's, he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight behind his desk.

Later on, in Transfiguration, the boys learned why Professor McGonagall was not a teacher to cross. She gave the entire class a stern talking to the very first lesion.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts, anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

She then, after a very showy display of transfiguration turning her desk into a pig and back, set them all to work trying to change a match into a pin after copying down a lot of complicated notes. By the end of the lesson, Hermione had been the only person, aside from Faykan, who made any difference to her match. Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had turned silver and slightly pointy. She gave Hermione a rare smile, before turning her attention to the table that Faykan and Harry were sitting in. Harry was trying with all his might to get the match to change, while Faykan just sat calmly, not attempting to do anything with his match.

"Mr. Undol, are you not going to try and change your match?" McGonagall said, slightly abashed.

"If you want me to I will, but I don't feel the need for extra practice." Faykan replied coolly.

"As a matter of fact I would like to see how well you can do to not think you need practice Mr. Undol." She replied sternly.

The entire class had turned at Faykan's reluctance to show the Professor, and sighing; Faykan picked up the match and closed his eyes. Not only did Faykan's match become a perfect needle, but it elongated further and twisted until it resembled a corkscrew.

McGonagall looked impressed, "Well, apparently you have a lot of talent in transfiguration Mr. Undol, five points to Gryffindor; however that does not excuse you from doing the required practice in class, or the homework outside it."

Faykan grinned slyly at her, "Of course Professor." He said smartly, and beamed at Hermione's look of absolute shock.

Defense against the Dark Arts turned out to be a joke, much to the disappointment of everyone. Professor Quirrell stuttered so much it was almost impossible to understand what he was trying to say, and the subject matter he attempted to teach didn't seem to be very helpful.

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Draco was having a very good first week at Hogwarts. True, he hadn't had a lot of time to chat with his friends, he didn't count his housemates as they weren't to be trusted, especially Theodore Nott, who practically stank of the same pureblood prejudices that Draco had chosen to ignore to be granted the friendship of Harry Potter and his group. As consequence to this, Nott had taking over as Ice Price of Slytherin rather quickly, and even Crabbe and Goyle didn't hang around Draco anymore, not that he cared. None of the other Slytherins said anything about Draco's almost friendship with The-Boy-Who-Lived however, seeing that Draco was probably making the most promising connections that he could. Had they only known that it was Harry who allowed Draco to be his friend, it probably wouldn't be the current case in Slytherin house. As such, Draco was merely ignored as a loner, rather than persecuted as a 'Blood-traitor'.

Inter-house politics aside, Draco was enjoying his classes. He hadn't had his godfather's class yet, but only Binns' and Quirrell's classes had been less than enjoyable.

Outside the classroom, Draco found solace in wandering the corridors, both during the day and after curfew. He had only been almost caught once, when he ran into the Squib caretaker's Cat, Mrs. Norris. Running through the twisting tunnels of the dungeons, Draco had been encountered by a strange black fox that he had followed back the Slytherin common room, through several secret doors. But before Draco could take a good look at his rescuer, the fox had vanished, disappearing around a corner like a grey-black shadow.

Draco had kept his eyes out for the fox every since that Wednesday night, but he hadn't had any luck in finding it again. He had his hopes up though, as his father had never mentioned anything about a magical fox that helped lost students before that he had found one of Hogwarts' many secrets.

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Friday morning found Severus Snape in a highly edgy mood. It was the first class that he would be teaching the combined Gryffindor and Slytherin first years, which meant three things. First, he would have to make the same show for his Slytherins that he always did, giving them favor over the Gryffindors. Second, he got to see if his godson had done his practicing before the school year like he had asked him to. Third, and most importantly, were the two Gryffindor boys, Potter and Undol.

Potter was a personal challenge Severus had set for himself. He was going to test the boy and see who he took after, his mother, or his vaunted father. Undol on the other hand… ever since McGonagall had told them all how far highly developed the boy's power and control was in her first class, Dumbledore had tasked them all with watching the boy closely, to see why he was so very advanced for a first year. Snape had his suspicions, but years of knowing Albus Dumbledore like he did said that Snape knew he would need evidence before telling the Headmaster of his ideas.

As the first years filed into the classroom, Severus watched from his nook near the door. He watched as Potter, Undol and a Weasley boy came in together, chatting animatedly about something or other, and sat together near the front of the room. Draco came in later alone, which surprised Snape. He had figured that Draco would take after his father, Lucius and become the leader of Slytherin house, but it appeared that had not happened. Severus wondered as to why, but it was answered for him when Undol waved Draco over and the three Gryffindors made room for the one Slytherin boy to join them at the front.

'Interesting' mused Severus, 'perhaps there is hope for the boy yet.'

The rest of the students came in after, most notably Theodore Nott flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, who sniffed at the sight of Draco sitting with the three Gryffindors, and took a seat at the back with his cronies.

After the rest of the class took their seats, Severus stepped out of his hiding place and slammed the door, making everyone jump. He then walked quickly to the front of the room. Severus started his class by taking the roll, stopping at Harry's name.

"Ah, Yes, Harry Potter, our new, celebrity." He said coldly. Nott sniggered as his head of house appeared to disregard the Potter boy with his black eyes. Severus said nothing more for the moment, ignoring the whispers that must have followed Potter all week and plunged into his same first year speech about what was expected from the students and what they could take from his classes if they weren't complete dunderheads.

The student's sat in quiet anticipation as he spoke; Snape never had had any trouble keeping his student's attention, as he was very gifted in the art of word craft. Finally he figured it was time to test Potter's knowledge of his subject.

"Potter!" Severus called suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Severus didn't expect anyone in the room to know the answer, least of all Potter, so when after a glace at his friends, Potter turned to him and said "The Draught of Living Death, sir?" Snape was pleasantly surprised, apparently the boy hadn't let his fame go to his head and forego his studies.

"Correct, let's try another shall we? Where, Mr. Potter would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?" Snape was again surprised when the boy answered correctly.

"In the stomach of a goat sir." Potter said, slightly more confidently.

"Correct." Severus decided a harder question was in order. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood, and wolfsbane?"

Harry looked slightly confused as Snape said the names of the two ingredients, and he smirked, clearly the boy didn't study completely for this class. But even he was shocked when Potter finally spoke up."

"I'm sorry sir, but is that a trick question? They're the same plant, sir."

"Correct Potter…" Snape was actually quite pleased. The boy took after his mother more than he had first guessed at. She had been very studious and bright. Looking towards Potter's friend, he could tell it was thanks to Undol that the boy had developed such study habits.

"Well, Mr. Potter, clearly fame isn't everything to you. Three points to Gryffindor for not being a dunderhead. Well? Why aren't the rest of you copying that down?"

As the class scrambled to write down the questions and their answers, Severus waved his wand at the chalkboards and they magically filled with the instructions for brewing a simple boil curing potion. After the class finished copying down the notes, with the exception of Undol, Snape noticed that he had only read the boards and nodded, Severus swept around the room splitting the children up into pairs to start brewing the potion. He paired Draco and Potter, and Weasley and Undol, wanting to see how the Gryffindor golden boy would do when separated from his two best friends. He was just inspecting their potion later, which was doing perfectly well to his surprise, when he heard a cry of alarm. Turning about, he saw Undol grabbing Neville Longbottom's hand, preventing him from putting porcupine quills into his cauldron.

"No Neville, you need to take it off the fire first, or it'll explode." Undol was reprimanding the boy as Snape glided over to stand behind the black haired boy.

"Mr. Undol what do you think you are doing?" he said coolly.

"I'm preventing my housemate from blowing up the classroom sir." Faykan replied with a slight edge of annoyance that he was being questioned.

"I see, however you did not need to lay a hand on another student, so I think that will be a point from Gryffindor." Severus sneered. Looking over at his and Weasley's cauldron, and noticed that not only was it perfectly simmering, but it was actually better than could be expected from first year with the ingredients that Severus had left for them to use. He was sure now that this boy knew a lot more than he was letting on now.

"Sir, I think that's rather unfair of you to take a point from us for that." Faykan replied before Weasley could stop him, now sternly looking up at Severus.

"Oh, do you now…" Snape said, eyes boring into the boy. There was something eerily familiar about how the boy was looking at him, Severus noticed, and he shook it off before turning his attention back to the young upstart who had talked back to him. "Then perhaps a detention over this weekend will teach you to respect your elder's judgment." He sneered as he spun back to the front of the room.

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Despite the altercation between Professor Snape and Faykan, Harry noticed that Faykan's attitude hadn't been overshadowed in the slightest by the Potions Master, if anything; Faykan looked pleased that he had detention with the man.

"You shouldn't really have pushed it Fay," Ron commented, "I've heard Snape can turn real nasty." Faykan just shrugged, grunting as he led Harry and Ron across the grounds towards Hagrid's Hut.

They arrived at the small wooden building of the edge of the Forbidden Forest just a few minutes before three, and as Harry knocked they heard several booming barks from inside. Hagrid's voice rang out afterward, saying, "Back, Fang. Back!"

The door opened a small crack, and the three boys could just barely see Hagrid's big, hairy face peering around to see them.

"Hang on a sec," he said. "Back Fang."

He finally let them in, as he struggled to restrain an enormous black boarhound from tackling any of them.

"Make yerselves at home," Hagrid said when he had shut the door, releasing Fang, who immediately went straight for Ron and started licking his ears. Clearly the dog was completely harmless, like Hagrid himself, Harry thought.

"Hello, Hagrid," Faykan said finally "As you already know Harry, let me introduce Ron."

Hagrid eyed the red haired boy as he started making tea and placing rock cakes onto a plate.

"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest ye know."

Harry and Ron took a rock cake each, while Faykan declined, which turned out to be the wiser choice, as they almost broke Harry's teeth when he bit into it, but he pretended to enjoy it. They all took turns telling Hagrid about their first week. Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.

Ron commented on how unfair Snape was to Faykan that day, but Hagrid told him not to worry about it as Snape hardly liked any of the students.

As the conversation turned from school to Ron's brother Charlie, who was studying dragons in Romania, Harry caught a glimpse of a cutting from the Daily Prophet. It outlined that on July thirty-first; someone had broken into Gringotts and attempted to steal something from the vaults. But apparently nothing had been taken as the vault in question, number 713, had been emptied earlier.

"Hey, Faykan," Harry said after reading the snippet several times over, "Were we in Diagon Ally on July thirty first, my birthday?"

"Uh, yea I do believe we were, why?" Faykan asked slightly puzzled.

Hagrid piped in from tending to the kettle of tea, "As a matter o fact, I was at Diagon Ally that day too. I was pickin' up sumthin' for Professor Dumbledore from a vault in Gringotts."

"Did it happen to be vault seven hundred thirteen, Hagrid?" Harry asked warily. When Hagrid abruptly changed the subject to the weather, Harry knew that he was correct in presuming that it had been. By the time they left, Harry had more questions in his head than before they arrived: what was in the vault Hagrid had taken that someone else tried to steal? Why did Dumbledore want whatever it was taken out? And where was the thing now?

_[1]__auta a' kai : go unto nothingness_


	7. Chapter 6

**I urge you to Review. Reviews are water that sprinkle the seeds of knowledge, allowing them to grow into a story.**

**Chapter Six**

**Flying**

Severus Snape stared down his hooked nose at the young boy he had set to scrubbing out cauldrons for his Saturday evening's detention. He had purposely set the time spot aside so he would be alone with Faykan Undol, so he could study him more closely and figure out the boy's background. If he could get the boy to just let slip one or two close secrets, Severus was sure he would be able, not only to settle his own discomfort with Mr. Undol, but push the fact that he was just an average student with some small magical talents to the Headmaster.

Faykan looked up at Severus for about the seventh time since he'd arrived twenty minutes ago for his punishment, and grinned knowingly at the Potions Master, as if he was aware of what Snape was thinking. 'Hmm, perhaps it is time to start pressing on the matter at hand.' Severus thought to himself. Another look and grin from Undol; did he truly know what he was thinking? Severus knew that it took great power to become a legilimens, but he severally doubted that this eleven year old could be _that_ powerful at his age.

Walking over to inspect the current cauldron that Undol had on resting on the floor, tipped on its side while he cleaned the outer rims, as it was coated in spilt potion that some student had carelessly allowed to bubble over, Severus smirked and commented:

"You've missed a spot, Mr. Undol."

"I'm aware that I've missed the spot under the handle, Professor, I was making sure that you were keeping your perfect observational prowess sharp when it came to cauldrons." Faykan replied with yet another grin at the Potions Master.

Snape, raised an eyebrow, had the boy actually known that he had been looking at that exact spot or was he just giving him more of his cheek?

After several awkward moments Severus spoke again. "So," he tried, with a quieter, silkier voice, "the other professors seem to think that you are something of a prodigy. However, I have yet to see anything to imply that you are anything better than an ordinary, simpleminded Gryffindor." Severus hoped to prick the boy's ego, provoke him; making it all the easier to draw hidden knowledge from him. But Faykan, never taking his eyes off the cauldron he was still cleaning, coolly replied in a tone worthy of the Head of Slytherin's admiration, "Well, clearly you haven't been paying attention to Harry's progress in your class then, sir, or even Ron Weasley's for that matter, not that I'm going to take all the credit for either of them, but I did, at least, give them the initial push to study consistently before classes."

'Ah, so that's how Potter knew the answers to my questions,' thought Severus, though still not impressed with this boy however. The actual truth was that Potter had been doing admirably in Severus' classes. Ever since that first lesson, Potter had chosen to work closely with Draco Malfoy whenever they were set to brew, and Severus couldn't in good conscience pull the two boys apart. Not only was Potter improving dramatically, but Draco seemed to be drifting away from the mould his father so painstakingly created for the young Slytherin.

Figuring a different tact might be in order, Severus stopped the boy by grabbing his arm and spinning him to face him, Severus spoke in a cold icy tone, dripping venom with every word.

"You may think that you have the entire school wrapped around your finger, boy, but I can see right through you, so…" As he spoke, Severus pressed the boy's mind softly with legilimency. Since he wasn't using his wand, the Potions Master couldn't probe as deeply as he would have liked, but he presumed that surface thoughts would be sufficient when combined with the threats he was implying to Undol.

"What is your real name?" Severus questioned.

"Faykan Undol, sir" came the nervous reply

"How did you force the sorting hat to put you in Gryffindor after it started to call out Slytherin?"

"I told it I refused to be separated from my friends, sir." The boy's voice was shaking slightly as Severus clutched his arm tightly. He would have loosened it, not truly wanting to harm the lad, but he needed the boy to fear for his safety to ensure the truth. Undol's thoughts were slippery, and Severus was having a difficult time trying to pin anything down that was of importance.

"Don't. Lie. To me,"

"I'm not lying, sir." Faykan replied softly, and Severus was surprised when he couldn't read anything definite from the surface thoughts of the boy. If anything, he mused, the boy's thoughts were shrouded to a degree, as if he was being screened from Undol's more private feelings.

Scowling down at Undol, Severus finally let him go and walked back to his desk. He sat there, just watching the boy for the rest of his two hour detention, and could of swore that despite the small traces of fear he could detect, the boy was actually humming to himself as he worked. Soon the boy starting singing softly, and Severus couldn't believe what he heard.

_The bells tolled at her passing, and I wept tears of blood.  
The good life is so fleeting, and destiny is so cruel.  
My heart is tossed in a sea of pain, and I know that I am alone.  
She lies cold in her coffin, and all my joy __has gone._ [1]

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco Malfoy was again perusing his now tri-weekly roving of Hogwarts castle, having finally decided to limit his wanderings after the incident with Mrs. Norris. He was currently walking down the seventh floor; passing an ugly tapestry depicting the unfortunate Barnabas the Barmy as he was trying to teach trolls the ballet, when Draco was almost pounced upon by something black with streaks of grey. Falling to the floor in surprise, he could only register the grey black tail scurrying into a room across the hall that Draco could have sworn wasn't there before. Getting to his feet, he walked over to the door and pushed it open. Inside was a plain room with no other windows or doors, and in the center of the room, staring at him with its bright blue eyes, was the exact same fox that had rescued him from Filch's cat a week ago. Kneeling down, Draco held his hand toward the fox, softly talking to it, hoping to calm its panicked look,

"Hey there little fellow, it's alright, I'm not going to hurt you." At first the fox did nothing, but Draco persisted and ever so slowly, it finally crept toward Draco's hand, sniffing every few steps. It was actually quite large for a fox, with a perfect thick black coat, mixed with grey streaks on its back beginning past its head, traveling down its back to the end of its tail, intersecting every so often. The fox's legs were also a dark grey. When the fox finally got close enough to him, Draco cautiously, not wanting to scare it away, reached over and slowly stroked the fox behind its large ears.

At that, the fox seemed to relax immensely, making a soft mewling noise as Draco touched it. It stepped forward until it was brushing against Draco's legs, prompting him to sit down and play with the fox's soft fur. Finally, Draco summoned enough courage to try and pick the fox up off the ground, and was surprised when it didn't react. If anything the fox just squirmed into a more comfortable position against Draco's chest as he held the small animal. Draco felt very comfortable with the animal's weight in his arms, and he started to walk out of the room in order to continue his walk with his new animal friend.

As he left, he noticed that the door of the room he was in had vanished, and therefore, he noted its location for further investigation later. The fox squirmed again in Draco's arms, and Draco set it on its feet again, however it didn't dash away like he thought it might have, but instead the fox walked to the end of the corridor, twitched its ears, and looked back at Draco, as if saying 'alls clear, come on'. Perplexed, Draco followed the fox until it led him, safely, back to the Slytherin common room, again, at around one in the morning.

Before saying the password to get back inside, Draco kneeled down to pet the fox one more time. "You think I might see you again soon, little friend?" he asked the fox, who just brushed him with its head in an affectionate way, which Draco took as a possible affirmative. Giving the small creature one soft squeeze around the neck, Draco said the password and disappeared inside the common room and went straight to bed.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry never believed that anyone could hate him more than the Dursleys, but that was before he met Theodore Nott. Thankfully, he only had Potions with the Slytherins, so he didn't have to deal with the boy's snarky comments, and overall rude behavior. That was until Ron pointed out to Harry and Faykan that flying lessons would be starting on Thursday, and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.

"Typical," Harry said darkly, "Just what I always wanted, to make a fool of myself on a broomstick in from of Nott."

During the next couple of Potion lessons, Nott had taken every possible opportunity to mock and sabotage the Gryffindors, Faykan and Harry especially. And what was worse was that it seemed that Snape completely ignored anything the Slytherins did. If anything, he was worse, constantly swooping around his classroom like an overgrown bat and deriding all efforts of the Gryffindors in his class, much to the amusement of Nott and his gang. Outside of Snape's classroom, Nott was limited mainly to rude comments and the occasional hex across a corridor. So, in Harry's mind, this was just going to be another opportunity for the Slytherin boy to taunt him.

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself." Ron said reasonably. "Anyway, I know Draco's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch; maybe well finally see some proof?"

Draco certainly did like to talk about flying a lot. Whenever they were together he complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters. He wasn't the only one, though; the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom. Most everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly.

Both Neville and Hermione seemed to be very nervous about the upcoming flying lessons, Neville because he was very accident prone, Hermione because it wasn't a skill you could learn by reading a book. At breakfast on Thursday she bored all within earshot stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out a library book. Neville was hanging on every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang onto his broomstick later, but everyone else was pleased when she was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.

Harry noticed that Faykan hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note from week before, and apparently so had Nott. Harry hadn't said anything personally, as he'd never gotten any mail since arriving at Hogwarts.

"Oh, no mail again today, Undol," Nott sneered as he was passing the Gryffindor table, "One would think that you weren't cared about."

Nott always had his family's large screech owl bringing him packages of sweets and things from home, which he liked to open gloatingly at the Slytherin table.

"Well, Nott, I don't need care packages from home to remind me that my family hasn't forgotten that I exist, unlike you." Faykan replied with a smirk.

Nott was about to retort, when a barn owl swooped down, dropping a package to Neville from his grandmother. Everyone stopped to watch as he opened the package, to reveal a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"Oh look," Dean Thomas said, "Neville's got a Remembrall."

"I've read about those," added Hermione, "When the smoke turns red, it means that you've forgotten something."

And indeed Hermione was correct, as the white smoke turned scarlet in Neville's hand. As Neville mentioned the difficulty of remembering what he had forgotten, Nott snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.

Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to confront Nott, but Professor McGonagall, who had the gift of foreseeing trouble as it was brewing, was there in a flash.

"What's going on?"

"Nott's got my Remembrall, Professor."

Scowling, the Slytherin boy quickly dropped the glass ball back onto the table.

"Just having a look," he said, and he strutted away, with Crabbe and Goyle hot on his heels.

Late in the afternoon, Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor first years hurried down onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was indeed a pleasant day, clear skies that seemed perfect for flying. As they neared the area they were told to meet Madam Hooch, the flying teacher, they found the Slytherin's already there, milling about the twenty or so broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground.

Finally, after a few seconds of waiting, Madam Hooch arrived. She had short grey hair and strange yellow eyes that resembled a hawk's.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked at them, "Everyone stand by a broomstick, right side of your left handed and vice-versa. Come on, hurry up"

Harry walked over to the left side of a broom, and Faykan and Ron took the brooms on either side of him, Faykan taking the right hand side of his broom. Harry momentarily glanced down at his broom. It was very old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

"Stick your wand hand over your broom," Madam Hooch called at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

"Up!" everyone shouted in reply.

Harry's broom leaped into his hand at once, as did Faykan's, though not nearly as quickly as Harry's had. Looking around, Harry noticed that theirs were only some of the very few that had done so. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all, probably responding to the quaver in Neville's voice, which clearly stated that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Ron was delighted when she told Draco he'd been doing it wrong for years, while Faykan simply coughed, suppressing a snigger.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," Madam Hooch explained. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, then lean forward slightly, and touch back down again. On my whistle; three, two…"

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back down this instant, boy!" She shouted, but Neville was shooting straight up and away from the rest of them like a rocket. He went further and further, until Harry saw him look back at the ground, terrified, and he slipped sideways off his broom, crashing to the ground with a nasty thud followed by a sick cracking sound.

The entire class raced over to where Neville had fallen, but Faykan reached him first. By the time Madam Hooch had arrived, Faykan had immobilized Neville's arm with a quickly muttered spell, and she bent over him.

"Nicely done Mr. Undol," she said quickly to Faykan before as she studied Neville's hand, "Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. "Come on boy, it's going to be fine, up you get."

She then turned to the rest of the class, "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."

Neville allowed her to lead him back toward the castle, clutching his wrist and allowing Madam Hooch to support him slightly.

No sooner were they out of earshot than Nott burst into laughter.

"Did you see his face?"

The other Slytherins, save Draco, joined in.

"Look!" said Nott after a few minutes of laughter, and he darted forward and snatched something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.

"Give that here, Nott," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.

Nott smiled nastily.

"No, I think it'll be more fun if I leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find," he said coldly, mounting his broom and kicking off, "How about on the roof?" he laughed as he soared upward and away from the other students.

Harry grabbed up his broom, just as Hermione Granger tried to stop him.

"Harry, no way, you heard what Madam Hooch said, besides, you don't even know how to fly…" but he ignored her. He mounted the broom and kicked off. The air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him, and it suddenly occurred to Harry, this was something he could do without being taught. It was easy, and it felt wonderful. Harry soared up to Nott and turned his broomstick to face him. Nott had clearly not been expecting Harry to take up his challenge.

"Give it here," Harry called at him, "or I'll knock you off your broom!"

"Oh, really?" Nott replied, trying to look smug, but failing miserably.

Somehow, Harry knew exactly what he needed to do. Leaning forward, he shot toward Nott like an arrow. The Slytherin barley managed to maneuver out of the way in time; Harry made an abrupt turn and faced the now white faced Nott again. He heard gasps and screams from girls below and excited whoops from Ron and Faykan.

Nott looked extremely worried. He seemed to ponder his next course of action for a moment, then called out, "If you want it so bad, Potter, catch it if you can, then," and threw the Remembrall as hard as he could and streaked back to the ground.

Harry saw the light glinting off the small glass ball as it flew through the air. Putting on a large boost of speed, he took off after it. Leaning forward, he dived after the ball. Moments before it hit the ground, Harry grabbed it and flipped backward with his broom, coming to a steady stop a few feet above the ground and landing with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist.

"HARRY POTTER!"

'Oh no,' thought Harry as he saw Professor McGonagall hurrying toward him.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco saw the entire aerial confrontation from his position at the back of the Slytherin group. Harry was absolutely amazing on a broom; he made flying look like an art form. Draco admitted to himself that he could probably never learn to fly that well in his entire lifetime, but if anyone asked him about it he would vehemently deny it. At the sight of Professor McGonagall calling Harry over to her, Draco's heart sank for his sort-of friend. Harry was most assuredly in deep trouble now.

Draco hurried over to Ron and Faykan as Harry was led away by the Head of Gryffindor, much to the amusement of Nott and the other Slytherins.

"Hey," Draco said to them as he arrived, "How bad is it gonna be you think?" he said hopefully.

"Probably pretty bad," Ron said dejectedly, "She wouldn't even let any of us explain why Harry was in the air, and everyone knows McGonagall is stricter on us than anyone else."

"Oh dear," Draco murmured. "I do hope he doesn't get expelled, if it means anything to you guys." He added reassuringly.

"So do we, Draco, so do we…" Faykan commented as the returned slowly to the castle.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

At dinner, Draco saw that Harry was still in the castle, and he hurried over to the Gryffindor table to find out what had happened after he had been lead away by Professor McGonagall. He arrived just as Harry was finishing explaining to Ron and Faykan.

"I start training next week," he had just said to them both. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."

"What's a secret Harry?" Draco asked, hopeful. "Please tell me you weren't expelled." He added holding his breath slightly.

"Harry isn't going to be expelled, Draco," Faykan assured, and then lowered his voice to a whisper so that only Draco Harry and Ron could hear him "As to the secret, McGonagall was so impressed with Harry's flying, that she took him to see Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and Harry got made seeker."

"No way," Draco said in wonder, "but, first years never make their house teams," turning to Harry, who only smiled, he continued slightly breathless, "that would make you the youngest seeker in a…"

"Century, according to Wood," Harry finished for him.

Just then, Fred and George Weasley came into the Great Hall, Draco could never tell the red head twins apart, and after they spotted Harry, hurried over to the four Gryffindors and one Slytherin. They shot daggers at Draco, until Faykan jabbed one of them in the stomach and sent them a look, "Hey well done Harry, Woods just told us." One of the twins whispered to Harry. "We're on the team too, beaters." The twins then started rattling off about the Quidditch cup with Harry and Ron, and while Draco was content to just watch, Faykan nudged his arm and inclined his head to the entrance hall.

Curious, Draco followed him out and down the stairs into the dungeons. As Faykan led him into an unused Potions classroom, Draco wondered how it was the Gryffindor knew the layout of the dungeons so well. When Draco had closed the door to the classroom, he turned to find Faykan lounging on one of the stools, leaning it on two legs with his back to the unused teacher's desk.

"So, Draco," he began, "As you no doubt are wondering why I've led us down here, so I'll get straight to the point. I'd like to ask you a few questions about Theodore Nott."

Whatever Draco was thinking, that hadn't been it. "Um, ok." He replied slowly. Draco proceeded then to tell Faykan all he knew about his fellow Slytherin, about how he was raised by his elderly father after his mother had died.

"Draco, is Nott's father a Death Eater?" Faykan asked bluntly after Draco had mentioned the amount of time Mr. Nott had spent around his father's manor.

"I don't know… maybe?" Draco answered, truthfully. "I couldn't say for certain, I was never allowed to be in the room when my father entertained certain guests."

That seemed to answer Faykan's main concern, and he turned to look out the small window in the classroom. Draco was about to turn and leave him to his thoughts when Faykan suddenly spoke again. "Draco, how much do you know about your ancestry?"

"Well, my father told me a bit about the Malfoy line…" Draco began, but Faykan interrupted him.

"I meant your mother's line, the Black family line," he said.

"Um, nothing much really, I mean my mother told me a few stories, but that was about it," Draco admitted. Faykan just nodded, knowingly.

"Hmm, pity as current knowledge of that particular bloodline only extends to the Middle Ages… I had wondered if the members of the Black family themselves had more comprehensive records, but clearly they either do not, or do not understand the importance, after all, five thousand years is a long time..."

Draco desperately wanted to ask what Faykan was talking about, but he had already swept past him out of the door, moving back up the dungeons back toward the Great Hall, robes billowing behind him like… Uncle Severus…

[1] Song: Ligeia's Lament by Nox Arcana, lyrics by Michelle Belanger.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**Secrets Revealed**

As Harry and Ron made their way out of the Great Hall after dinner, as their conversation with Fred and George had gone on far longer than he had anticipated, they found Faykan waiting in the Entrance Hall, seeming as though he had just come from the dungeons.

"Hey, where have you been?" Ron called out to Faykan as he joined them and they continued up the marble staircase.

"Oh, Draco wanted to have a private word, so we went down to the dungeon area for a brief chat." Faykan replied rather dismissively. Ron however, didn't notice. "Oh, well, we were just wondering where you had gone was all."

They were just starting to ascend the grand staircase to head back to Gryffindor Tower, when the three boys stopped as someone called Harry's name. Turning back, they saw Hermione Granger hurrying to catch up. "Oh, no, what does she want now?" Ron groaned.

They started walking again before she caught them; half hoping she'd give up, but to no avail. "Harry," she called as she arrived, "I just heard the strangest rumor about you; something about being put on the Gryffindor Quidditch team after that bout of rule breaking during the flying lesson."

"Who'd you think spilt the secret?" Ron said angrily "Bet yea it was Malfoy."

"Couldn't have, he was with me and I saw him head toward his common room when I left him in the dungeons." Faykan replied, "More likely it was either Wood or your twin brothers showing off." Harry grinned to himself at the thought.

"So it _is_ true!" said Hermione, "You know Harry, you really are quite lucky to have not been punished. I mean, normally McGonagall is really strict about rule breaking…" but whatever else she was going to say was cut off when the staircase they were all on shuddered, and shifted sideways suddenly, throwing them all off balance. "What's happening?" Harry said surprised. "The staircases change, remember." Hermione replied.

As it settled into its new position, Faykan hurried up past the next landing, just as the staircase ahead shifted away, stranding them on the landing. "Damn." He said angrily, and then turned to the nearby door, "Let's go through here, and try to find a way around. There's no telling how long it'll take for the stairs to return to this side." As they entered the deserted corridor, the four Gryffindors noticed at once that something was out of place.

"Does anyone get the feeling," Harry said, "That we shouldn't be here?"

"We're not _supposed_ to be here, this is the third floor. It's forbidden" Hermione hissed at him.

Turning to leave they stopped at the sight of Mrs. Norris entering behind them. "It's Filch's cat!" said Ron.

"Run!" yelled Faykan. They tore down the corridor until they slammed into the door at the very end. Unfortunately it was locked. They could hear footsteps approaching and Ron was starting to panic.

"Oh move over," Hermione snarled, shoving Faykan aside and, whipping out her wand, muttered _'Alohomora'_ while pointing it at the door. The lock clicked and they wrenched the door open. They all scrambled through the door and slammed it behind them.

"Anyone here my sweet?" Harry could hear Filch mutter to his cat from the other side of the door. But, as he could see no one, he finally moved away, telling her to 'C'mon'.

"Lucky for us he thinks this door's locked," Ron said finally after they were sure Filch had gone. "It was locked." Hermione retorted

"And for good reason…" Harry said facing down the corridor they were standing in.

They all whipped around, and found standing before them the reason that this corridor was forbidden. A monstrous dog, with three massive heads stood in the center of the corridor, blocking all passage in that direction. All six of its eyes were watching them and it was growling menacingly. Harry clawed for the doorknob as the dog started bounding toward them. Just as he got the door open it was upon them.

"_Onna kaima!_" Faykan cried as they fell backward through the open doorway, and the dog slumped to the floor, quickly falling asleep. Taking no notice, the four students slammed the door and bolted back to the stairs, practically flew up them and didn't stop running until they were in front of the fat lady on the seventh floor. Ignoring her remarks about the lateness of the hour, they supplied the password (Pig snout) and immediately fell into armchairs around the fire of the common room, which was almost completely burnt out.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally.

Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, do you, any of you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet; I was too busy with its heads."

"No, not the floor, it was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."

Faykan got a very far away look at her words.

She stood up, glaring at them. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed, or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

Ron stared after her, his mouth open. "That girl _needs_ to sort out her priorities…"

As the three boys climbed into bed minutes later, Harry mused as to what the dog could possible be guarding. Didn't Hagrid mention that he'd taken something out of Gringotts, right before the same vault had been robbed?

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

A week later at breakfast, Harry and Ron were still discussing not only the recent adventure of the three headed dog, but how they were going to rub Nott's face in the fact that Harry got put on the Quidditch team for Gryffindor. Faykan continued to be very quiet, and Harry noticed he was looking rather tired recently, as if he wasn't sleeping well. "It's either really valuable or really dangerous," Ron was saying while Harry was studying Faykan, wondering what could be keeping him up at night. "Or both," he replied absently.

Hermione showed no interest in what lay underneath the dog or the trapdoor. In fact, she was refusing to speak to any of the three boys, which suited them just fine.

Harry was about to ask Faykan what the matter was, when the mail arrived, and amidst the torrent of owls, Harry quite forgot about Faykan and his troubles. His attention, like so many others was draw to a long, thin package that was being carried by no less than six screech owls. Harry was caught off guard, then, when they dropped the package right in front of him, splashing milk from a toppled pitcher all over. The six owls had barley whirled away when Hedwig soared down to land Next to Harry's arm, a letter in her beak. Harry took the letter first, and opening it read:

_DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE._

_It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first training session._

_Professor McGonagall_

Harry handed the note to Ron while beaming at the package. "Wow," Ron moaned, "A Nimbus Two Thousand! I've never even touched one."

Grabbing Faykan by the arm, as he looked like he was going to fall asleep right into his plate of bacon, the three Gryffindors left the hall, Harry wanting to unwrap the broomstick before their first class, but halfway across the Entrance Hall they found themselves halted by the massive forms of Crabbe and Goyle. Nott, smirking, seized the package from Harry and rolled it over in his hands.

"That's a broomstick, Potter," he said, throwing it back jealously at Harry, spite evident on his face. "You'll be in for it this time, first years aren't allowed them."

Ron was going to retort, but at that moment, Professor Flitwick appeared beside Nott.

"Not arguing I hope boys?" he squeaked.

"Potter's been sent a broomstick, Professor," Nott said quickly, triumph on his pale face.

"Yes, yes that's right," Flitwick said, beaming at Harry. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?"

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," said Harry, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Nott's face. "And it's really thanks to Theodore here that I've got it," he added snidely.

As the three Gryffindors headed upstairs, Ron and Harry smothering their laughter at Nott's looks of rage and confusion, they noticed Faykan lagging behind them, clearly winded. "Hey, Faykan what's up with you today?" Ron said as they jogged back to help their friend.

"Nothing… just tired…" Faykan panted.

"Common Fay, you can tell us what's going on." Harry persisted.

"It's because he's been sneaking out every night for the last week." Came an angry voice from just behind them. Hermione was stomping up the stairs, looking disapprovingly at Faykan state of exhaustion. "Honestly the way you boys behave you'd think you were immune to punishments." She continued, starting to rant.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" said Harry quickly.

"Yes, don't stop now;" said Ron, "it's doing us so much good."

Hermione just ignored him and stomped away, her nose in the air.

Turning back to Faykan, who was looking paler than usual, Harry heaved the smaller boy onto his arm for support, and with Ron taking his other side, they continued up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower, "You know mate," Ron said later, grinning slightly, "you really shouldn't push yourself like this, your already way too thin and we can't take care of you like this forever." Faykan managed a slight chuckle, and when they arrived in their dormitory, Harry and Ron sat him on his bed and let him sleep for a few minutes while they opened the broomstick.

Both boys continued to watch Faykan rather worriedly the rest of the day, but the short nap they had allowed him seemed to tide him over the rest of the day, as he didn't slump over in any of their classes, even if he didn't seem to pay any attention. Thankfully the professors didn't notice, as Faykan never usually paid much mind to their lectures.

Thankfully by Halloween, Harry and Ron noticed that Faykan was looking much better. It seemed that he took their advice to heart and ceased, or at least cut back, his nighttime adventuring. They now sat in Flitwick's class, divided into pairs, Harry with Faykan and Ron, to his annoyance, with Hermione.

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Hermione Granger knew she was a clever enough witch, her teachers had attested to this fact often, and she knew spells that her classmates probably had never even heard of. Very few things stumped her, but the one major thing that set her on edge was the black haired Faykan, who was currently sitting next to Harry, leaning back in his seat and not even trying to levitate their feather that Professor Flitwick has set them to do.

Hermione had no idea what to make of this boy, he was intelligent, clearly, as he was able to do everything his teachers asked of him, but he seemed reluctant to show off his abilities unless asked to point blank. Then, there was the encounter with the three headed dog. Hermione distinctly remembered the boy crying out something that sounded like a spell right before the dog had fell asleep with a crash. She had gone over every book she could get her hands on, but couldn't find a single thing that seemed remotely similar to what he had said.

Turning in her seat to watch him again, Hermione saw him take Harry's arm and correct his wand movement slightly, but Harry seemed to be making little progress with the assignment. Next to her, Ron was having less luck than Harry.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his arms like a windmill.

Hermione finally snapped as Ron's wand came close to hitting her in the face. "Stop, stop," she said grabbing Ron's arm. "You're going to put someone's eye out, besides, you saying it wrong. It's Levi-_o_-sa not Levi-o-_sa_."

"You do it then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled back.

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!" Ron leaned over and set his head on his books, clearly angry, which allowed Hermione to watch as the Professor moved over to Faykan and Harry, and he asked if Faykan was going to try and levitate their feather.

Faykan just shrugged, lifting his wand and simply pointed it at the feather, which shot up into the air and hovered there like a kite on a string. While Flitwick showered him with praise for his spell work, Hermione looked on in shock. Not only had the boy not done the instructed wand movement for the spell, but he hadn't even said the incantation. Something was off with this boy, and Hermione was going to find out what.

After the class, Hermione followed the three boys down to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast. Ron was complaining loudly about her, but she was starting at Faykan was he walked on the other side of Harry from Ron. She noticed, something, on the back of his neck then, and hurried past the three boys, she purposely knocked into Faykan as she passed. She saw what it was instantly; grey snake-like tattoos were on either side of the boy's neck, disappearing down his back under his robes. Hermione rushed off to find a secluded place to remember where she'd seen those kinds of tattoos before. Coming to a bathroom, she pushed past Parvarti Patil as she went inside. The other girl took little notice of her, and Hermione locked herself in a stall to think.

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Harry thought the feast was glorious. The live bats fluttered around like great dark clouds of wings, while massive pumpkin floated over the tables, each filled with candles casting shadows over the entire Great Hall. Even the knowledge that Hermione was currently crying in a girl's bathroom after Ron's verbal assault of her after the Charm's class couldn't dampen his spirits. He was just taking a baked potato passed to him by Faykan, when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, turban askew and terror evident on his face. Apparently fear could overcome his constant stuttering, because he cried in a very clear, high pitched tone. "Troll! In the dungeons! Troll in the dungeons!" he made it half up the house tables and stopped, panting, "Thought you ought to know." He added before fainting to the floor.

The Hall exploded, people started scrambling to escape the Hall and seek refuge in their house dormitories. Faykan grabbed both Ron and Harry, forcing them to remain seated, when Dumbledore finally shouted for silence. At his voice, everyone froze where they were, as the headmaster had never raised his voice before.

"Prefects," he said "lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately, teachers, will follow me to the dungeons."

Turning to watch, Harry saw Professor Snape leave out a side door while the rest of the teachers, led by Dumbledore, were moving past the students to the dungeon entrance. As Percy barked for Gryffindors to follow him, Harry found Faykan's hand still on his and Ron's robes, "Hermione," he whispered, "she doesn't know about the troll." Taking a look back at where Snape had disappeared, Faykan stood, motioning for Harry and Ron to follow Percy "I'm going to follow Snape, you two get Hermione to the common room. Be safe, nothing too reckless, please." He said before stealthily tearing after Snape. Harry and Ron shot each other a look, then followed Percy out of the Great Hall, and separated from the Gryffindors at their first opportunity to look for Hermione.

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Severus Snape had a hunch. It seemed far too convenient that Quirrell had not only missed the beginning of the Halloween feast, but had also happened to find and escape a troll wandering in the dungeons. Speeding off to the third floor, Severus hoped he was still ahead of the Defense Professor. As he entered the corridor that led to the forbidden area, he stopped as he saw a black fox, waiting patiently in the middle of the corridor, watching him with its striking blue eyes. Snape was only just pondering what the small animal was doing here, when Quirrell came bounding in behind him.

"Oh, S-S-Severus, I, um," he began, but Snape cut him off. "Ah, Quirrell, I had a thought I might meet you here of all places, when the troll is supposed to be rampaging in the dungeons."

The stuttering Defense teacher just gaped at Severus before looking at the far door and back at Snape. "W-well I-I, j-just thought that it was r-rather strange that a t-troll could have entered the ca-castle so easily and…" he stammered.

Snape was about to retort, when he noticed the fox at his feet. Both Professors looked down at the small creature. It was circling both men's legs and sniffing as if seeking a particular scent. First it would smell Severus, then Quirrell, and the move to a new position. Finally it stopped after smelling a section of Quirrell's robes, and growled, baring its teeth at the now cowering man.

"I believe we had better go join the Headmaster in the dungeon and look for that troll of yours," Severus began, but stopped as a scream was heard piercing throughout the castle. The fox bolted immediately toward the sound, with Snape and Quirrell hot on its heels.

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Harry and Ron had found Hermione, and unfortunately she wasn't alone. Towering over her was a twelve foot tall granite grey troll, dragging a giant club across the floor. Hermione was pressed against the far wall as the troll advanced on her, smashing sinks as it passed.

"Confuse it!" Harry yelled, seizing a broken tap, and throwing it with all his might at the troll. The troll didn't notice the metal striking him, but turned to see what had made the noise. Spotting Harry, it advanced raising its club high over its head, preparing to smash Harry into the floor.

"Oy, pea brain!" Ron cried at it, throwing broken porcelain at the walls, making as much noise as possible. The troll spun around, giving Harry enough time to run around it to Hermione. She was far too terrified to move, and Ron was running out of room to maneuver around the troll, "Harry do something!" he cried desperately.

Harry whipped out his wand and yelled the first spell that came to mind, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The troll's club slid out of its hand as it brought it crashing down towards Ron. The troll stopped, looked stupidly at its empty hand, then raised its small head to look at its floating weapon, just as it fell onto its face. Sadly, it only succeeded at making the troll very angry. Roaring in pain, it started to throw things around the room, not aiming at anything in particular.

Just then the doors burst open magically, and a large black Fox dove into the room, saw the troll, and changed. The Fox elongated and stood onto its hind lags, which changed into a human's. Moments later, Faykan stood in the fox's place, brandishing his wand like a sword. Slashing it through the air, he bellowed "_Valar Kalina_!" Pure white light burst out of the wand's end, engulfing the troll like a spotlight. Shielding its eyes and roaring in renewed agony, the troll stood rooted to the spot as it started to stiffen. Before anyone could blink, the troll had suddenly turned completely to stone.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione just stood gaping at Faykan and the now stone statue of a troll, completely dumbfounded at what just happened. Moments later, Professor McGonagall came bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the now dead troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

As Snape inspected the remains of the troll, Professor McGonagall was looking between the four Gryffindors. If she didn't look so surprised at what they'd found, Harry could of swore she would have been furious.

"Who did this," she finally said, pointing at the statue. Harry and Ron shot Faykan a long look, while Hermione said nothing. Professor McGonagall followed their eyes, finally resting on Faykan, who still held his wand pointed at the statue. "Please explain yourself, Mr. Undol." Faykan stood there, completely lost for words. Snape was eyeing him suspiciously. Then a small voice came from behind Harry, "Please, Professor, they were looking for me."

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione had found her voice at last.

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Severus watched as Miss Granger told the story of how she had gone looking for the troll, just to be found and rescued by the three boys. Personally he didn't believe a word of it, Granger was far too intelligent to break rules and follow after a troll. And the way that Undol was looking at her proved it to him. Minerva seemed to not be entirely convinced, but only deducted five points from Granger, and sent her back to her common room.

"Well, I still say you three were extremely lucky," she continued turning to face the boys, who had grouped together near the door, "not many first years could have taken on a fully grown mountain troll and lived, you each will receive five points for Gryffindor, and Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You two," she indicated Potter and Weasley, "may go join you housemates in the common room, you," indicating Undol, "wait here, we wish to discuss how to managed to handle the troll in more detail."

A few uncomfortable minutes of the boy sitting on the toilet that Quirrell had vacated, him having gone for the Headmaster, had Severus' mind reeling. Somehow that boy had firstly: known of troll's weaknesses to pure light, and secondly; had known a powerful enough spell to conjure enough light to cause the troll to be encased in stone. How had he done it, no seventh year student could have performed that spell, let alone a first year. As the boy seemed none to willing to spill anything about how he had done it, Severus itched to be allowed to loosen the boys tongue himself, to make him talk, but conceded to wait for the Headmaster to arrive and speak with the boy.

They didn't wait too long. Professor Dumbledore walked in, followed by Quirrell and Poppy Pomfrey, the school nurse. As she looked the boy over for injuries, Albus came over to talk with Severus. Running a hand over the stone that was once a living troll, the Headmaster turned to Snape, eyes twinkling madly, "How has this happened, Severus?" he calmly inquired.

"I haven't the slightest clue Headmaster, you will probably have to ask him," the Potions Master replied, shooting a glare over at the boy, now struggling against Madam Pomfrey, who was trying to get the boy to remove his robes so she could inspect him for bruising. Giving up, she finally just waved her wand over the boy, taking magical scans of him, and then confirmed that he was perfectly unharmed.

Finally turning to regard the boy before him, Albus kneeled down to be on eye level with Undol, who was refusing to meet the Headmaster's gaze. "Mr. Undol, please tell us how you managed to cast such a powerful and indeed difficult spell." Dumbledore asked in his calm voice. Still not looking at him, Undol answered something in an undertone that Severus couldn't hear.

"What was that dear boy, I couldn't make that out." Albus stated, putting a hand comfortingly on the boys shoulder, silently encouraging him to look up. Undol spoke again, but still refused to look at the Headmaster's face, "I don't know sir, I just panicked and it just happened." Severus snorted, hearing the lie from a mile away, but Albus nodded absently. "Well, if that's the case, and you don't have anything you wish to tell us," he tipped Undol's chin upward, forcing the boy to look at him. The young Gryffindor shifted his eyes to look away from Professor Dumbledore, starting at the giant troll sculpture he had managed to create. "Then I don't see why you cannot return to your common room for the rest of the feast then." Albus continued, standing and leading the boy out of the bathroom.

After the boy had literally dashed away, Dumbledore turned back to Severus, and the rest of the teachers went off back to their respected offices to enjoy the last of the feast.

"Severus," he began, "I can sense something about that boy he's trying with all his might to conceal from everyone."

"Headmaster, in all honesty I've noticed that from my first class with Mr. Undol." Severus said slightly sarcastically. Sometimes Albus could be slightly absentminded about these things.

"No, I mean he is not what he appears," the older wizard continued, "whatever he is, he is defiantly not an ordinary eleven year old boy. He knew that I was trying to enter his mind and find the truth and not only did he refuse to grant me access, but his mind rejected every push that I attempted." Severus paled; Dumbledore was one of the world's most power legilimens, if this boy could resist him, what other secrets could he be hiding.

"We need to watch him carefully Severus." Albus said flatly, "We need to find out his intentions, whether they are for good or ill…"

"I whole heartedly agree Albus." Snape agreed.

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Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in a dark corner of the common room as the Halloween feast continued around them when the portrait hole opened and Faykan came dashing in.

"Hey Undol, where've you been," Fred called as Faykan ducked through the masses of students towards the boy's dormitories.

"Oh, no where, yea know," he replied dismissively as be ran up the stairs, ignoring Fred and George's attempts to call him back to the party.

"Let's follow him," Harry said, and the three first years weaved through the partying Gryffindors and up the stairs to the first year boy's dormitory. Closing the door behind them, Harry turned to see Ron, and Hermione standing next to Faykan's bed, the curtains draw closed around it.

"Fay," Ron said softly, "We want to talk to you." Hermione slowly pulled the curtains open. Faykan was sprawled on his stomach on the bed in just his trousers, his shirt and robes in a pile by his feet, and Hermione gasped softly as she saw his markings fully for the first time.

"What do you want," Faykan said stiffly, turning to look at them.

"We just want to know what happened…" Hermione began, but Harry cut her off "After we left,"

Faykan grunted turning back to face his pillow "Nothing, Snape sent for Dumbledore and they tried to get me to talk about what happened with the troll."

"And, what did you tell him," Hermione pressed, kneeling down to look at Faykan's face.

"Nothing, and thankfully he didn't try harder to press me into talking."

"So, can we ask you some things then?" Hermione asked in a soft voice.

Another grunt, "Only if I can refuse to answer." He said flatly

"Of course Fay, we'd never force you to talk about things you didn't want to." Harry assured him.

Ron went to watch the door and make sure no one burst in unexpectedly, while Harry went to join Hermione next to Faykan, who sighed and rolled over onto his back. Harry winced when he saw the large scar on Faykan's ribcage that he'd never noticed before. He realized that for the three years that he'd known the boy, he truly didn't know a lot about him.

"So, where do you want to start?" Faykan said in a dull tone.

Looking at Harry, Hermione cleared her throat, "How did you change from that fox when you entered the bathroom?" Harry hadn't actually noticed that detail; he was too busy protecting Hermione from the Troll at the time.

"I'm an animagus; I can turn into a fox at will. That's how I've been getting around the school after hours without being caught." Faykan explained, resigned to her interrogation.

Ron raised his eyebrows "Wow, that's really cool." Faykan smiled at his praise, but turned back as Hermione pressed on with her questioning.

"And, these marks on your back, there ritual tattoos aren't they."

"Yes," he admitted, "They are the markings of an Istar, from where my family claims ancestry from." Hermione made a soft 'Oh' but didn't ask anything more.

"What was that you blasted the troll with that made it turn to stone?" Ron asked from across the room.

"Pure unhindered sunlight," Faykan replied without looking up, "trolls are naturally adverse to sunlight, and if they are surrounded with enough they will turn to stone."

"How do you know all this advanced magic," Harry finally asked.

"That, my dear friends, is one of the questions I cannot answer just yet. I will tell you all, I promise, but just not now, it's not safe to reveal just now." Faykan replied with a heavy sigh.

Harry knew that they had gotten as much out of him as they were going to, so they didn't press it any further. He patted Faykan on the shoulder as he sat next to him on the bed,

"Thank you for trusting us with that much, I know it must take a lot for you to let us know these things, and we appreciate it."

"We promise," Hermione added, looking at Harry and Ron, "that your secrets will be safe with us, and we won't even discuss them unless you say we may."

Faykan smiled at her, sighed slightly and stood up. Harry got up as well, and Hermione walked to the door to leave for the girl's dormitory. "Thank you," Faykan said as she pulled the door open. Harry could tell that she was really happy that they were her friends now. He could also tell that she was going to be a true friend in return to the three Gryffindor boys from here on. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and defeating a twelve foot mountain troll is one of them.

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	9. Chapter 8

**Please Review. writer's block is much easier to manage when people are encouraging my abilities.**

**Chapter Eight**

**Christmas**

The morning of the first Quidditch match of the season found Hermione, Faykan, Ron and Harry down at the Gryffindor table bright and early, the first three trying to coax the fourth to eat something before the game that afternoon.

"You've got to eat something Harry." Faykan said, putting a plate of eggs in front of his friend.

"I don't want anything." Harry replied shoving the plate away.

"Just a bit of toast then," Hermione said, offering Harry a piece from her plate.

"I'm not hungry." He persisted

Ron was about to say something when a cold voice sounded right behind them, making them all jump. "Good luck today, Potter." They turned to see Professor Snape standing there smirking down at them all. "Though after a mountain troll, a little game of Quidditch should be quite simple," he sneered and walked off. Faykan watched until he was out of sight, and then turned back to the other three.

"I just remembered that when I followed Snape on Halloween, he went to the third floor, luckily I was transformed so he couldn't recognize me, but right after he arrived so did Quirrell. I think, I'm not sure, but one or the other was using the troll as a distraction to get past that three headed dog."

Hermione frowned at that, but said nothing, as Ron had launched into a rant about how Snape must have been the one trying to steal whatever the dog was guarding.

"I'm not so sure Ron," Faykan said, "Snape looked pleased to find Quirrell there and Quirrell did smell like troll..."

Ron and Faykan argued the point for the next several minutes, and Harry zoned out, trying to forget about the Quidditch game that would take place in a few hours.

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After the very exciting, and terrifying, game of Quidditch, the four Gryffindors were in Hagrid's hut, discussing the events of the game. Gryffindor had won, but in the midst of the game Harry's broom had begun bucking wildly, trying to throw him to his death. Only the combined efforts of Faykan and Hermione had managed to keep Harry on his broom, Faykan muttering a counter jinx while Hermione ran and stopped Snape by setting his robes on fire, breaking his eye contact and severing his ability to further jinx Harry's broom. Afterward Faykan had finally acquiesced with Ron that he may have had a point about Snape wanting to steal whatever the dog was guarding, however Faykan still had his suspicions of Quirrell. At the mention of the large three headed dog, Hagrid piped up,

"How do you know about Fluffy?" he said, dropping his teapot.

Faykan repaired the teapot with a wave of his hand while Hermione distracted Hagrid,

"Fluffy, that thing has a name?"

"Cours' he does, he's mine, I bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year. Then I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the…"

"Yes?" Harry said eagerly.

"No, don't ask me anymore, that's top secret that is." Hagrid said gruffly.

"But whatever it is, Snape's trying to steal it," Ron added urgently.

"Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher; he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why did he try to kill Harry?" cried Hermione.

The afternoon's events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about Snape.

"I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid; I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!" she continued

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all four of yeh; yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous, you forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel…"

"Aha!" said Faykan, "so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"

Hagrid shooed them out at that, constantly repeating 'I shouldn' told yeh that.'

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Draco was looking forward to the Christmas holiday, because for once, he wasn't going to be stuck at his father's manor, he was planning to stay at Hogwarts. He had overheard that Harry, Ron, and Faykan were going to be staying, and decided on his own that he would use the extra free time to become more familiar with the three Gryffindor. Faykan seemed to like Draco, and Harry was at least civil, but Ron still seemed to distrust the Slytherin, and Harry generally chose to just keep the two boys apart as much as possible.

Draco was sitting on the edge of the Slytherin group in the Potion's classroom, nearest the Gryffindors. He could see Harry and Faykan talking in low voices every time Snape turned his back to them, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Nott had earlier mentioned quite loudly, how much he felt 'sorry' for everyone who had to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays, pointedly looking at Harry and Faykan. Harry just ignored him, choosing to pay attention to the powdered spine of lionfish he was measuring, but Faykan shot a death glare in Nott's direction, who only sneered in return.

Nott had become a real arse to the Gryffindor first years ever since the Quidditch match, comparing Harry to a wide-mouthed tree frog (because of how Harry had caught the snitch,) and everything else his little mind could think of. He'd quickly realized that not many people found this funny, as they were too impressed that Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick. So Nott used his fallback plan of mocking Harry and Faykan about their lack of families.

After the Potions class, where Snape docked another five points from Faykan for no reason whatsoever, Draco followed the four Gryffindors up to the library, skating past Hagrid in the entrance hall as he delivered a giant Christmas tree for the Great Hall. He entered the library just to see them split up and gather books from everywhere in the library, finally setting them down at a table in a secluded corner to browse them. Moving closer, Draco could tell that none of these books had anything to do with their current subjects, which only perked his interest more.

"Hey," Faykan said to Draco as he sat down next to the shorter boy.

"What are you all up too?" Draco inquired, looking from Hermione to Harry, who both had the noses in books, scanning them quickly.

Hermione looked at Draco, glanced at Faykan, who nodded at her, and, returning to Draco, she said, "Were looking for information on Nicholas Flamel."

"Why would you be looking for something like that?" Draco asked puzzled. Ron shot him a look and returned to the essay he was writing. Faykan quietly started explaining everything they had seen and heard concerning Fluffy, skipping over the revelations that had arisen because of the troll's attack on Hermione, except for their suspicions of Snape.

"There's no way its Snape," Draco said vehemently, "I mean, sure he's mean to non Slytherins but he wouldn't go against something Dumbledore is trying to accomplish." Ron huffed in a defiant sort of way, and Draco shot the red haired Weasley an angry look.

Just at that time, Madam Pince, the librarian, walked over and started dusting around their study table. Faykan and Hermione glanced at her, and after motioning to the rest, got up and lead Draco out of the library. Hermione explained to Draco that they didn't want to raise the suspicions of whomever it was trying to steal the stone by asking around for the information. Draco could see the sense in that, and had to admit that for Gryffindors, these four were showing a lot of Slytherin cunning in their investigation.

"You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?" said Hermione to the three Gryffindor boys. "And send me an owl if you find anything."

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After Hermione had left however, Harry, Ron, Faykan decided that they were going to take a break from searching for Nicholas Flamel and enjoy the holidays for a while. The Gryffindor common room was almost completely deserted all the time, and the three boys had their dormitory all to themselves.

Harry even was being taught wizard chess by both Ron and Draco, much to Faykan's amusement, as they seemed to get into their own matches after arguing about tactics every time. Harry picked up the game rather easily, but was no match for either Ron or Draco, whose matches could go on for hours before either of them conceded defeat. Faykan was good, better than Harry at least, but wasn't in the same league as either Ron or Draco. He tended to just like to watch Harry struggle through his games with one of the other two occasionally throwing out suggestions.

On Christmas Eve, Harry went to bed looking forward to the next day for the food and fun, but not expecting any presents at all. When he woke early in the morning, however, the first thing he saw was a small pile of packages at the foot of his bed.

"Merry Christmas Harry," Faykan said, sitting on the foot of his bed, with a small handful of presents in his lap. Looking over at Ron, who was still asleep, Faykan and Harry grinned to each other, crept over to his bed, and swiftly jumped onto the sleeping boy, startling him awake.

"Bloody hell! What's wrong with you guys?" Ron yelled as they dragged him out of his bed and around to his presents.

"Nothing Ron, we were worried that you died in your sleep, not being wide awake on Christmas morning like normal wizards." Faykan said, grinning widely.

"Shove off," Ron retorted, but he didn't have his heart in it. His eyes were on his sizeable pile of presents.

Sitting on the edge of his bed, Harry watched his two best friends as they opened their first few presents. Faykan was just opening a small box that had been wrapped in strange silver white paper that seemed to create its own light. Opening the wooden box within that had a large rune on the top, Faykan pulled out a small gold ring, set with a large red jewel, which seemed to flicker with fire and as Harry looked at it, he felt an aura of calmness surround him. Faykan slipped the ring on his left forefinger and quickly looked away, but Harry could see tears in his eyes.

Harry finally turned to his own presents. Picking up the top parcel, Harry saw that written across it was _To Harry, from Hagrid_. Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled it himself. Harry blew it, and heard that it sounded a bit like an owl. Harry ignored the small fifty pence piece from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, tossing to Ron who was fascinated by it.

Faykan, who was now eating a chocolate frog he got in a package from Hermione, picked up a strange lumpy parcel. "Who sent this?" he thought out loud.

Ron went slightly pink as he saw the package in Faykan's hand. Harry looked at his pile to find a similar one with his name on it. "I think I know who those are from," Ron said, "My mum. I told her you two didn't expect a lot of presents and, oh, no." he groaned loudly, "she made both of you Weasley sweaters."

Harry had torn open the parcel to find a thick, hand knitted sweater in emerald green, and a large box of homemade fudge. Looking up at Faykan, he saw that the other boy had received the same thing, except his sweater was a deep blue.

Ron opened his own sweater, while explaining "Every year she makes us a sweater, or sometime a scarf, and mines always maroon," he added glumly.

"Well, Ron, you tell her for me that I love mine." Faykan said, smiling brightly as he pulled the sweater on.

"That's really nice for her," Harry said, tasting the fudge, which was very tasty.

After opening his own box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione, Harry picked up his last present, which was very light. As he unwrapped it, something fluid and silvery gray slithered to the floor and laid there in gleaming folds. Ron gasped and Faykan widened his eyes. "I know what that is," he said breathily, "That's an invisibility cloak,"

"A what?" Harry asked, picking the shining, silver cloth off the floor. It felt strange, like water woven into material.

"An invisibility clock," Faykan persisted, while Ron had a look of awe on his face, "I'm sure it is, go ahead try it on."

Harry threw the cloak around his shoulders and Ron gave a yell, while Faykan beamed at him. Looking down at his feet, Harry gasped when he found that they were gone. He dashed to the mirror and, sure enough, his floating head's reflection stared back at him. He pulled the cloak over his head and his reflection disappeared entirely.

"There's a note!" said Ron suddenly. "A note fell out of it Harry!"

Harry pulled off the cloak and seized the letter. Written in narrow, loopy writing he had never seen before were the following words:

'_Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you.'_

Whoever had sent the cloak to Harry, hadn't signed the note. Harry felt strange, who had sent him the cloak? Had it really belonged to his father?

But before Harry could voice any of his questions aloud, Fred and George Weasley flung the door open and bounded into their dorm. Harry stuffed the cloak out of sight, not feeling like sharing it with anyone else just yet.

"Merry Christmas!" Fred proclaimed happily.

"Hey Fred, look, Faykan and Harry have Weasley sweaters too!"

Both Fred and George were also wearing bright blue sweaters, one with a large yellow F and the other with a G.

Theirs are better than ours, though," said Fred, picking at Faykan sweater. "Mum must make more of an effort if you're not family."

The twins then went about examining the three boys presents, after egging Ron into pulling his maroon sweater on. They all gathered around Faykan's ring, which seemed to have the heartwarming effect on everyone around him.

"Wow, that's really cool, Fay." George said after a few moments of silence. "Who sent it to you?"

"An old family friend," Faykan said, tears starting to fill his eyes again, but he blinked them away quickly.

Percy had come in at that moment, and the twins pounced on him, pulling his own sweater over his head forcefully and frog marched him from the dorm, berating him about sitting with the family at dinner, leaving the three first years alone again.

Harry had never in all his life had such a wonderful Christmas dinner as he had that year at Hogwarts. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Faykan and it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him.

Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver sickle embedded in his slice. Harry watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally stooping to kiss Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Harry's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided.

When Harry finally left the table, he was laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of nonexplodable, luminous balloons, a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit, and his own new wizard chess set. The white mice had disappeared and Harry had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner.

After a furious snowball fight that included Harry, Faykan, Draco and the Weasleys, they all returned to the warmth of the castle, the Gryffindors still laughing at how soaked the one Slytherin had become, as they had all teamed up on him at one point. It had been Harry's best Christmas day ever. Yet something had been nagging at the back of his mind all day. Not until he climbed into bed was he free to think about it; the invisibility cloak and whoever had sent it. Ron, full of turkey and cake had drifted off immediately after he had drawn the curtains of his four-poster. Pulling the cloak out, Harry suddenly felt wide awake, as excitement poured through his body. He could go anywhere without Filch or anyone else ever knowing.

He was startled out of his thoughts when Faykan spoke from his bed, "Wonderful feeling, isn't it. To be able to go anywhere you want, when you want. No restrictions." Turning to face him, Harry saw he was sitting on the side of his bed, fully dressed, staring at Harry.

"You want to go out tonight Harry, don't you?" he said, grinning.

"Yeah, I do, kind of." Harry replied.

"Let's do it then, C'mon." He said standing and moving to the dormitory door. Harry took one last look at Ron, who just grunted in his sleep, and decided he wanted to use the cloak alone for his first trip. Standing, he followed Faykan out to the common room, and through the portrait hole, pulling the cloak on at the same time Faykan transformed into the large black fox.

The Fat Lady was fast asleep, and therefore didn't notice them leaving down the corridor. As Harry followed Faykan the fox, he wondered where his friend was leading him too, they weren't going anywhere that he recognized, but it was hard to tell because Faykan kept leading him through secret passages that Harry never knew about. Harry took the time during his journey to study Faykan's animagus form, he really was a superb fox after all, jet black with long grey streaks like his tattoos running down his back, ending at the tip of his tail. Each leg was grey also and his eyes were the same strong blue color that his human form had.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted when a piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence, ringing up and down the corridor. Harry and Faykan just froze, knowing that they wouldn't be seen if they remained motionless. Soon Harry heard rushing footsteps approaching, and he watched as Draco Malfoy sped right into him from around a corner.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco was terrified, not only was he almost caught by Filch when he was looking at books in the restricted section, but now he was lost and had run into a solid something that knocked him to the floor. He almost screamed, but just them a familiar fox jumped onto his chest and he heard a voice from the corridor ahead.

"Ouch, Draco what are you doing out this late?" the voice sounded like Harry, but it was coming out of thin air.

"Ok, that it, I'm losing my mind." Draco said to the fox, starting to hyperventilate. Then suddenly, Harry Potter's head appeared out of thin air. Draco's eye bulged and his mouth dropped to the floor. Harry looked up, past Draco as he heard footsteps coming from where Draco has ran from, and Draco saw Harry removed a cloak from around him, pull Draco to his feet, and throw it around their shoulders. The fox then dove to the other side of the corridor, and Harry dragged Draco right behind it.

No sooner had they moved but Snape and Filch came around the corner, talking in hushed whispers,

"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the Restricted Section." Filch said to Snape.

Harry put one hand over Draco's mouth, and used the other to guide him backward, away from Filch and Snape, and toward an opened door that the fox was creeping toward in the shadows. After the Potions Master and the caretaker passed the classroom they were hiding in, Harry released Draco and closed the door. Pulling off the cloak from them both, Draco gaped at Harry, not able to form any words for several seconds.

"Draco, calm down," Harry said slowly, motioning Draco to sit down in an unused desk, and sitting next to him. The fox jumped onto Draco's lap and rubbed itself against his chest, comforting him. Moments later, Draco finally found his voice, "Harry, how… you were moving around the corridor invisible?"

Holding up his Invisibility cloak, Harry began his long explanation about receiving it as a gift that very morning. Harry then asked him what he was doing running down the corridors like the Bloody Baron was after him. Draco explained that ever since Hermione had left, he had been checking the library out day after day for information on Nicholas Flamel as he knew that Harry and defiantly Ron weren't going to do it. He continued to explain that he was looking through the Restricted Section tonight and had accidentally opened a book that had screamed, and not wanting to be caught be Filch, he had bolted out of the library immediately and after rushing down many different corridors, had run into Harry.

At this time the fox leapt from Draco to the stone floor and started walking to the other side of the classroom. Draco and Harry followed it with their eyes, settling on a large mirror they hadn't noticed earlier because of their distress at escaping Snape and Filch.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: _'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.'_ Draco watched as the fox moved directly in front of the mirror, and he almost yelled out in surprise when the fox morphed into Faykan. Turning his back on the mirror, he regarded Draco's look of utter shock, "Hello Draco…" He said with a wide grin.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry walked over to the mirror Faykan changed in front of while he explained his animagus abilities to Draco, who looked like he was going to faint after all the revelations of this night. Stepping in front of the mirror, Harry gasped out loud, drawing the attention of the two other boys. A woman was standing right behind his reflection in the mirror and was smiling at him and waving. She was a very pretty woman, with dark red hair and her eyes, her eyes were just like Harry's. They were bright green, exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time. The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just as Harry's did. Harry edged so close to the mirror that his nose was nearly touching that of his reflection.

"Mum?" he whispered. "Dad?"

Faykan and Draco moved over to Harry, Faykan putting a hand on his shoulder. Harry looked at him, but his eyes were also on the mirror,

"Fay, can you see them too?" he asked.

"No Harry, they are for your eyes only in this mirror," he answered slightly sorrowful. Taking a deep breath, he continued, "This mirror, it shows the viewer only their heart's deepest desire. Nothing of substance, and only a deep yearning forms when someone looks in this mirror, Harry, I presume you see your family don't you," Harry nodded, still watching them surrounding his reflection. Faykan turned him so that Harry was looking right into Faykan's bright blue eyes, "This mirror will destroy anyone who watches too long, Harry. I want you to promise me, that you will never come to look for it again once you and Draco leave."

"But what about…" Harry began.

"Promise me." Faykan cut him off. Draco just stood back, not wanting to look in the mirror or disturb the two Gryffindors.

"I promise." Harry said softly, taking one last look at the faces of his parents, and he turned to Draco, "We should probably get back to our common rooms," he said and they both left, Harry draping his invisibility cloak over them both as they opened the door.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

As the two boys left, Faykan turned to look at the mirror once more. After a few moments he spoke to the empty room, "You can reveal yourself, Professor Dumbledore, I know you are there." And from the shadows, the Headmaster of Hogwarts appeared, looking slightly disturbed that the boy had known of his presence.

"I apologize for not announcing myself, Mr. Undol, but it seemed to be most prudent at the time." Dumbledore began but stopped as he saw the boy was still looking in the mirror.

"So," he continued after watching Undol, slipping off the desk to stand next to the younger boy, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"The delights," Faykan said, huffing slightly, "You mean the trap, _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_: I show not your face but your heart's desire." Dumbledore stood silently, watching as the boy painfully tore his gaze from the mirror.

"I certainly hope you plan on moving this mirror before school resumes, most likely to the third floor if I'm not mistaking, Professor." Undol said, shooting a glance at Albus, who only twinkled his eyes in response.

"Ah, so you were able to piece together this part of the puzzle were you?" Dumbledore said, but Faykan was already moving towards the door.

"One more moment if you please Faykan," the Headmaster said, calling the boy back. Faykan turned and stood, waiting for Dumbledore to ask his question, "I figured that Harry could only have seen his family in the mirror, but I was wondering, if I might be so bold as to ask what you see in the mirror?" he asked finally.

Faykan smiled, "White shores… and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise." And he turned, transformed into his animagus form, and left, bound for Gryffindor tower, leaving the most powerful wizard of the age with a piece of his own puzzle that the Headmaster couldn't wait to solve.


	10. Chapter 9

**Review Please: Sunlight beams from thy golden words of encouragement.**

**Chapter Nine**

**Of Alchemists and Dragons**

Despite Harry's promise to Faykan to not look for the mirror again, he was sore tempted. He couldn't forget his parent's faces and he was starting to be haunted at night by nightmares of them disappearing in a flash of green light, while a high voice cackled with sadistic laughter. Thankfully, Faykan was always there for him, comforting him when he was at his lowest. It almost seemed to Harry that Faykan had even less sleep than he did over the last weeks of the holidays, as whenever Harry woke from a nightmare Faykan was beside him immediately, holding him and singing softly to calm Harry and return him to sleep.

Hermione came back the day before the holidays ended. She didn't seem interested in the strange mirror; she was too consumed with preparing for classes to restart and disappointed from the four boys for not discovering who Nicolas Flamel was. They were almost ready to give up on the library giving up the information about him, but Hermione wasn't going to quit, and continued to drag the four boys there every spare minute.

Harry was so tired of the library that he couldn't bare to look in too many more books for Nicolas. Taking out his last Chocolate Frog to keep himself awake, he bit the head off the frog as it tried to jump away from him and absentminded turned the card over. _'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel'_ Harry almost choked

"I've found him! I've found Flamel, he was on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card!" he said excitedly. He showed the others the card, and Hermione jumped to her feet immediately and dug through her bag.

"I never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly almost slamming the book down on Faykan's fingers in her excitement. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

"_This_ is light?" said Ron eyeing the very large book, but Hermione told him to be quiet until she'd looked something up, and started flicking frantically through the pages, muttering to herself.

At last she found what she was looking for.

"I knew it! I knew it!"

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" said Ron grumpily. Hermione ignored him. "Nicolas Flamel," she whispered dramatically, "is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!"

This didn't have quite the effect she'd expected.

"The what?" asked Harry, Ron and Draco. Faykan got his now trademark far away look as she began to explain about the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers to transform any metal into pure gold, and produce the Elixir of Life, which would make the drinker immortal.

She continued to read aloud that the only Stone currently in existence belonged to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, who was six hundred and sixty five last year.

"See?" said Hermione finally after Ron and Harry looked up at her from the book. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Philosopher's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!" Faykan was nodding to himself as she spoke, clearly in agreement.

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Harry. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it." Draco started to argue again that it couldn't be Snape, but at that moment Madam Pince came by and threw them all out of the library.

Harry didn't have time to think about their newest discovery because, once the school year restarted, Quidditch practice started to eat up all of his time. Wood was truly becoming a fanatic, but according to Fred and George he always was. He was training the team as hard as Harry could remember, even in the endless rain that had begun. He explained that his reasoning was that Snape had decided to referee the next match of Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus Snape was very concerned about Potter and his fiends. Ever since the incident at the last Quidditch match, he had kept a closer eye on the four Gryffindors, to the point that he was sure that they must have noticed. But Severus didn't care, he would do whatever it took to keep Lily Potter's son safe from harm, however inconvenient to the boy it was. This was the main reason for Severus to volunteer to referee the next Quidditch match.

The Potions Master noticed, a few time in his classes, that at the same time he was discreetly watching Potter, that both Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley seemed to be watching Severus' every move, as if he was going to blast them with his wand the moment they looked away. Taking a glance at Potter and Undol, Severus noted that while Harry was also watching him, the other black haired boy had a rather far away look that one acquires when pondering deep matters, or daydreaming…

Undol was the second reason that Severus felt the need to personally watch Potter. He had learned from Albus about the boy's nighttime encounter with the Mirror of Erised, and how they boy had seen through the Headmaster's disillusionment charm. What had rattled Dumbledore most of all though, was what Faykan had said that he saw in the mirror: _'White shores… and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise_._'_ Albus had a suspicion, but he hadn't yet let Severus in on what he was researching about this boy. So Severus watched and waited, he took extra time between classes to follow the boy, who stayed near Potter almost constantly, which made it easier for Snape to keep track of both boys.

Prior to the start of the Quidditch match, Severus had commented to Albus that it might be safest is he was present at the match just in case someone tried to attack Potter again, even with Snape in the air with the boy, he couldn't be sure if he could protect him completely. He had told the Headmaster about what had happened the last game, how he had saw Harry's broom start to go berserk, and had immediately starting muttering the counter jinx to try and save the boy. Whoever was attacking the broom had almost won, when Severus felt a powerful force start to influence the broom, assisting him in trying to settle the bucking broomstick. It wasn't until his cloak had been set aflame that he realized that the attackers connection had broken, allowing Harry to safely finish the game.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

As Snape flew the length of the pitch, and while keeping one eye on Potter at all times, he barley managed to dodge a bludger that one of the Weasley twins and sent right at him. He fairly sent a penalty to Hufflepuff, and was turning to see where Potter had gone, when he felt, more than saw, a blur of scarlet rush past him, and whirling around, he watched as Potter pulled up from a dive with the snitch in hand. Gryffindor had won the match. Severus landed breathing a sigh of relief.

The attacker hadn't tried to do in the boy again. Just as he touched down, Severus looked up to see Quirrell moving away from the stadium, towards the Forbidden Forest. 'Curious' he thought, normally the jittery Defense teacher wouldn't have left the castle at all, except for Quidditch matches, which he seemed to have a fondness for. As the sun started to set, Severus pulled his hood over his head, and followed the strangely acting Professor into the forest. He had had a suspicion about the Professor ever since Halloween and it was time for some answers…

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco Malfoy was studying in the library, readying himself for the end of the year exams, when his four Gryffindor friends entered, Hermione in the lead. He waved them over to his side table, and they all came over, Faykan sitting next to him with Harry on the other side. Ron and Hermione sat across the table from them.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away." Ron was complaining, as Hermione pulled out five color coded study schedules and handed them out to the four boys.

"Ten weeks," she snapped back at the red head, "that's not ages; it's like a second to Nicholas Flamel."

"But," Draco interjected, "we're not over six hundred years old are we?" Faykan let out a small cough masking a snigger that no one noticed as Ron pressed on arguing with Hermione. Draco wondered how the boy was going to pass his classes if he kept procrastinating, and promptly tuned them out as he returned to his Transfiguration book.

Harry had pulled out his Potions book, when he stopped and called out to Hagrid, who was just shuffling towards the exit, clearly hiding something out of sight. He questioned them all if they were still looking for Nicholas Flamel, looking worried, and Hermione verified that they had already figured out who he was 'ages ago'. Ron almost blurted out about the Philosopher's Stone before Hagrid shushed him.

"Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said Harry, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy…"

"SHHHH!" said Hagrid holding up a huge finger. "Listen, come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh"

"See you later, then," said Harry and Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione thoughtfully. Ron then dashed off to the section Hagrid had come out of and returned seconds later with a pile of dragon books.

"Hagrid told me first day of term that he always wanted a dragon," Faykan said, and he winced slightly as Ron kicked him under the table right when Madam Pince passed by.

An hour later, the five students entered Hagrid's hut and immediately noticed how stiflingly hot it was inside, as all the curtains were closed and a blazing fire was in the grate. Hagrid made tea and they all sat as comfortably as they could as Harry began his questioning about the Stone's defenses. Hagrid told them he didn't know the other defenses other than his three headed dog, but he did tell them the teachers that had made them: Professors Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, Quirrell, Snape, and Dumbledore himself. Harry then explained that he had seen Snape follow Quirrell into the forest and what he overheard them discussing. Even Draco thought that for Snape that seemed extremely suspicious.

It was about this time that Ron noticed the dragon egg in Hagrid's fire. It was very large, completely black and settled perfecting in the heart of the flames. Hagrid explained how he'd won it off a stranger in a game of cards. Draco found that slightly suspicious, but didn't get to ask about it as Hagrid shepherded then out onto the grounds so he could continue tending his new dragon egg.

Draco had a very bad feeling about the giant man raising a dragon in his _wooden_ house.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

A few weeks later, Hedwig brought Harry a note from Hagrid at breakfast. He had only written two words on it in a quick scrawl: _It's hatching._ Hermione wouldn't permit the three boys from skiving classes and rushing down to Hagrid's hut immediately, and while Faykan went to inform Draco, Ron argued with her. Harry saw Nott, walking past the Gryffindor table, stop dead as Ron said the word 'dragon'.

"Shut up!" he whispered, tugging at them both. As they made their way down to the greenhouses for Herbology, Faykan catching up with them in the entrance hall, Ron continued to argue the point with Hermione. Harry decided to ignore them both, focusing on the song Faykan was half humming as they walked, trying to figure out if or where he had heard it before.

After the lesson, Hermione finally conceded that they could go during the morning break, and they departed the second the bell had rung, practically running the entire way to Hagrid's hut. Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out." He said as he ushered them inside.

The egg was lying on the table with deep cracks slowly growing on all its sides. Something was clearly moving inside, struggling to escape, making odd clicking noises and the egg chipped and splintered. Draco came bursting in the door just in time to see the egg before, with a loud scraping noise it split open, revealing the baby dragon within. Harry thought that, for a dragon, it looked more like a crumpled black umbrella, with its huge spiny wings dwarfing its skinny jet body. The dragon was sneezing slightly, shooting sparks out of its snout with every one.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured as he reached a hand out to stroke the dragon's tiny head. It reacted by snapping at his fingers, showing off its pointed fangs.

As Hagrid continued to praise and coddle the baby dragon, Harry shot Hermione and Faykan a worried look. "Hagrid," Hermione said, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Hagrid turned to answer, but as he looked at Hermione the color drained from his face suddenly and he leapt to the feet and ran to the window.

"What's the matter?" Ron said watching him with wide eyes.

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains… It's a kid; he's runnin' back up ter the school." Hagrid answered

Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him. Nott had seen the dragon.

The next week consisted of Harry, Ron, Faykan, Hermione and Draco pleading with Hagrid to let the dragon go, which he had named Norbert. They had no luck until Faykan remembered about Ron's brother Charlie and Hagrid finally agreed to send him a letter asking him to take Norbert to Romania. They received his answer the next Wednesday via Hedwig:

_Dear Ron,_

_How are you? Thanks for the letter, I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon. _

_Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark._

_Send me an answer as soon as possible._

_Love,_

_Charlie_

There was only one hitch in the plan; Ron had been bitten by Norbert while helping Hagrid feed the now not-so-small baby dragon, and the wound swelled overnight, sending Ron to the hospital wing. What was worse was that while Ron was trapped in the hospital wing, Nott came in to taunt him, and took Ron's book where he had hidden the letter from Charlie, meaning that he now knew when and where they were going to deposit Norbert.

"Well, it's too late to change the plan now," Harry said when they realized this terrible news, "and besides, we have the invisibility cloak, Nott doesn't know about that."

So it was decided. Saturday night, Harry, Hermione and Faykan walked down to Hagrid's hut under the invisibility cloak, and collected Norbert, whom Hagrid had fussed over giving him things to 'comfort' him on his long journey. Harry would have felt sorry for his large friend, if not for worry about what they had to do. Luckily it was a very dark, cloudy night so anyone looking out of the castle would have had a hard time seeing them. After they got the dragon, which was mercifully in a crate, they left back for the castle, and Faykan transformed into his animagus form to scout the route ahead for signs of teachers or Filch, while Harry and Hermione carried the crate up staircase after staircase to the astronomy tower. When they were about two thirds of the way there, Harry and Hermione saw Faykan stop, ears twitching as he listened ahead of them. They crept slowly forward and were delighted when they saw Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, pulling Nott by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you…"

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming, he's got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on. I shall see Professor Snape about you, Nott!"

The three Gryffindors finally reached the top of the astronomy tower and breathed a collective sigh. They only waited about ten minutes, chatting happily about Nott's punishment until Charlie's friends arrived to take Norbert away. Harry and Hermione shook hand with the others while Faykan just gave them all a nod of recognition. And at last Norbert the dragon disappeared over the clouds and out of their lives.

All three slipped back down the spiral staircase, hearts light as their hands, until they came to the bottom of the stairs to find Professor McGonagall stride out of the darkness. They had been so happy about Norbert leaving that Harry and Hermione forgot to put the invisibility cloak back on and Faykan had forgotten to change into a fox.

"Good Evening," she said her mouth the thinnest line Harry had ever seen.

The three Gryffindors followed her in silence to her office, where she finally sat down and addressed them, "Nothing, I repeat, nothing, gives a student the right to walk about the school at night." Harry could tell beneath her well controlled face she was bubbling with rage. She continued telling them what she thought they were up to, feeding Nott with a lie to get him in trouble. She finally ruled their sentence. "All three of you will receive detention, and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."

"Fifty?" Harry gasped; they had just lost the lead for the House cup, the lead he had won in Quidditch.

"Fifty, each," Professor McGonagall continued, breathing heavily through her long pointed nose.

"Professor, please"

"You can't…"

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students."

Harry was devastated, one hundred and fifty points lost in one night, putting Gryffindor in last place. How could they ever make up for this?

The next day went by painfully slow, the story spreading like wildfire: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, hero of two Quidditch matches, had lost all those points, him and a pair of stupid first years.

Harry was suddenly the most hated student in Hogwarts. Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on him, because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the house cup. Everywhere Harry went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted him. Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as he walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks Potter, we owe you one!"

Harry promised himself that he was done poking his nose in other people business, and he poured himself into studying for his exams and trying to put what had happened behind him. Even when he thought he heard Snape threatening Quirrell in an empty classroom, he refused to allow Hermione or Ron talk him into investigating more.

The following morning, notes were delivered to Harry, Hermione and Faykan at the breakfast table. They were all the same:

_Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall._

_Professor McGonagall_

Harry half expected that Hermione would complain about that this was a whole night of studying lost, but it seemed that she, like Harry, felt they deserved what they'd got.

At the prearranged time the three Gryffindors said goodbye to Ron and went down to the entrance hall, to find Filch and Nott. Harry hadn't thought about Nott since they were caught the night before, but remembered that he had also gotten a detention.

"Follow me," Filch said with a sneer, lighting a lamp and leading them outside.

As they walked out onto the ground Filch taunted them about breaking rules and about his beloved chains that he used to hang student up by various limbs in his office, Harry presumed that Filch was delighted by the severity of their punishment.

The moon was bright, but clouds scudding across it kept throwing them into darkness. Ahead, Harry could see the lighted windows of Hagrid's hut. Then they heard a distant shout.

"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started."

Harry's heart rose slightly; if they were going to be working with Hagrid it wouldn't be as bad. His relief must have showed in his face, because Filch said, "I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, boy, it's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece." He sneered at this, and Faykan put a hand on Harry should to reassure him of their safety

Nott had stopped dead however. "The forest?" he repeated, sounding panicky, "We can go in there at night, there's all sorts of thing in there… like, werewolves,"

"That's your problem, isn't it?" said Filch, his voice cracking with glee. "Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?"

Hagrid showed up then, and after a few words with Filch, who said he'd return in an hour for the students, he sent the caretaker back up to the castle. After Filch had gone, Nott turned to Hagrid, starting to shake visibly in fear refusing to go into the forest and complaining that his father would hear about his mistreatment. Hagrid simply said that if Nott thought his father would rather want him expelled, he could go back to the castle and pack immediately. Nott finally backed down at that.

"Right then," said Hagrid, "now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

Hagrid lead the four students to the very edge of the forest, and holding up his lamp, he pointed down a winding narrow track that disappeared into the thick black trees.

"Look there," Hagrid said pointing at a pool of silvery liquid. "That's unicorn blood. I found one dead last Wednesday, this ones been hurt bad by somthin'. We're gonna try and find the poor beast." Hagrid continued to explain that they would be splitting up, setting Faykan to go with Harry and Fang, while he would take Nott and Hermione. They were instructed to send up green sparks if they found the unicorn, red if they encountered trouble.

So Harry and Faykan set out with Fang into the heart of the forest. They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest until they lost the path because the trees had become too thick to follow it. Harry thought the blood splotches they were finding intermittently seemed to be getting thicker as they went. Faykan pointed out a clearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak tree.

"Look…" he whispered in Harry's ear.

Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. They inched closer.

It was the body of the unicorn, dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful or so sad. He stepped toward it, but stopped suddenly when a slithering sound came from the far side of the clearing. A bush on the far edge quivered, and out of the shadows came a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast. Harry, Faykan and Fang stood transfixed, as the cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.

"What is it," Harry whispered to Faykan, trying to be a quiet as possible, but even that was too much. The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at Harry, while unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward Harry, and he couldn't move for fear.

Then a pain like he'd never felt before pierced his head; it was as though his scar were on fire. Half blinded, he staggered backward. Barley, he could see Faykan standing between him and the cloaked figure, wand in his hand, and his whole body shone with light, "_auta me'urra amin naia_"[1] he bellowed, lowering his wand to point at the advancing figure. Bright blue white lightning blasted from the tip of his wand, and arced over the air toward the figure, who conjured a shield of darkness that absorbed the blast of electricity. The figure then turned and fled, rising into the sky and vanishing past the tops of the trees.

"Harry, are you alright," Faykan said as he pulled up his friend. Shaking his head, dispelling the dizziness and pain, Harry stood, touching his throbbing scar gingerly "Yes, thanks Fay. What was that?"

"Whatever it was, it was a horrid creature. Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a terrible crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a most terrible price. You would have slain something pure to save yourself, and you will have a cursed life from the very moment the blood touches your lips." Faykan explained, but that only spawned more questions for Harry.

"Who would choose such a life?"

"Perhaps someone who only needs to stay alive long enough to drink something that would restore him to full power, something that would mean he could never die."

"The Philosopher's Stone…" Harry said quietly, "Of course the Elixir of Life! But, who."

"Can't you think of anyone Harry, anyone at all who could have been waiting so many years to return to power, clinging to life and awaiting their chance?" Faykan questioned, looking directly into Harry's eyes.

Realization finally dawned on Harry, "You mean that thing that killed the unicorn, which was drinking its blood. That was Voldemort?"

"I can think of no other," Faykan said flatly, then raised his wand and shot emerald green sparks into the air.

They waited in silence for several minutes, each lost in their own thoughts, until Hagrid arrived with Hermione and Nott.

"Harry! Fay! Are you both alright?"

"We're fine Hermione." Faykan said, while Harry stood slightly dazed from the past experience. "The unicorn is dead Hagrid; it's in that clearing back there."

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Ron was asleep when the other three Gryffindor first years arrived back in the common room. Harry shook him awake, and he and Faykan told them both about what they had witnessed and worked out in the forest. Harry refused to sit, and paced in front of the fire while Faykan stared out a window.

"Snape wants the stone for Voldemort... and Voldemort's waiting in the forest... and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich..."

Ron moaned when Harry said Voldemort's name, but he wasn't listening. Faykan brought up the fact that as long as Dumbledore was around, Harry was sure to be safe, as the Headmaster was the only wizard that Voldemort ever feared, however Harry could hear a tint of sarcasm in Faykan's voice as he said it.

"Stop saying his name." Ron moaned again and Faykan turned to him, "VOLDEMORT!" he cried in Ron's face, who paled and fell out of his chair. Faykan glared down at him. "Stop telling people to be afraid of him; I will say his name, for it is just a name. He is just a man, nothing more…" Ron whimpered slightly, but remained silent from then on.

Harry finally posed that they really needed to get to bed, and they all went up to their respective dormitories. Harry was so exhausted he dropped right to sleep the minute his head hit the pillow.

[1]_auta me'urra amin naia : come lightning I command_


	11. Chapter 10

**Review! ****If one feels that this story is alert worthy, I want to hear your opnion about it. Good, Bad, or Neutrtal, reviews keep the creative gears well oiled.**

**Chapter Ten**

**Beyond Fluffy**

Harry never knew how he made it through his exams, especially when he was half expecting Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment. The days slowly crept by, and Faykan confirmed that Fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door.

It was incredibly hot in the large lecture room that the first years had their written exams in, writing with special new AntiCheating quills. Their practical exams were just as difficult: Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his classroom to see is they could make a pineapple tap dance across a desk, while McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox. Snape made them slightly nervous, watching closely as they remembered how to make a forgetfulness potion; Faykan had laughed at the irony.

Harry did the best that he could, while trying to ignore the stabbing pains in his forehead, which was bothering him more and more ever since the detention in the forest. Faykan, Ron and Hermione seemed worried about him, but the rest of the Gryffindor first years seemed to think it was just exam nerves. Harry could barley sleep, only drifting off if Faykan played the flute that he had gotten for Christmas for him, weaving a spell like melody that cause everyone in the dormitory to become drowsy. Even then he was still woken by his old nightmare, except now they were worse because of the hooded figure dripping blood in them.

Strangely enough, only Faykan seemed as worried about the Stone as Harry, probably because of what they had shared in the forest. Ron and Hermione were certainly scared of the idea of Voldemort, but they were far too busy with their studies to fret about what Snape or anyone else might be up to.

Their very last exam was History of Magic. After they were finished with the one hour torment of answering questions about batty old wizards and witches that had invented self stirring cauldrons or other nonsense and they would be free for one full week before their results came back. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Harry couldn't help cheering with the rest.

Hermione was going over the exam as they wandered down to the lake, like she did after every written exam. As they sprawled around a shady tree, they saw the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan tickling the tentacles of a giant squid that was basking in the shallows. "No more studying," Ron sighed contentedly, stretching out on the grass. Faykan was looking at Harry, who was still rubbing his forehead in pain.

"Your scar is still hurting, isn't it?" he asked and Harry nodded.

"I wish I knew what it means!" Harry burst out angrily. "It's never happened as often as this."

Hermione suggested that Harry visit Madam Pomfrey, but Harry knew that she couldn't help. His scar felt like, like it was warning him of coming danger. Ron told him to relax, as the Stone was safe as long as Dumbledore was around, and Snape couldn't know how to get past Fluffy anyway. Something clicked in Faykan's mind when Ron mentioned Fluffy, and Harry noticed his worried, far away look.

"I just thought of something," Faykan said finally standing shakily, "don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants more than anything is a dragon, and someone shows up that just happens to have one? I mean, who wanders around with dragon eggs in their pocket," he paled and started running toward Hagrid hut, "Why didn't I see it before!"

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco had just walked out of the castle to enjoy a little sunshine when he saw Faykan, followed by Harry, Hermione and Ron, sprinting as fast as they could down to Hagrid's hut. Fearing something might be wrong, Draco chased after them, arriving just as they were chatting with Hagrid.

"Hullo," he had just said, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"

Draco was about to accept the invitation when Faykan cut him off, "No, we're in a hurry Hagrid, I've got something important to ask you about. You know the night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?

"Dunno," said Hagrid casually, "he wouldn' take his cloak off." He took a look at their stunned faces and raised his eyebrows, explaining that there were lots of strange folk that came to the Hog's Head and he never saw the stranger's face, because the person had kept his hood up.

Faykan pressed onward, "What did you talk to him about? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"

"Mighta come up," said Hagrid, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah... he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here... He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after... so I told him... an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon... an' then... I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks... Let's see... yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted... but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home... So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy..."

Faykan asked how interested the stranger seemed when Hagrid mentioned Fluffy.

"Well, yeah, how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep…"

Hagrid looked horrified and started to tell them to forget what he'd said, but they were all sprinting back to the castle as fast as their legs could carry them. None of the five students spoke until they were back in the castle, which was rather vacant as opposed to the warm, sunlit grounds. They flew up to Professor McGonagall's office, as none of them knew where the Head's office was, and skidded to a halt in front of her desk. Professor McGonagall looked up, and frowned at their panicked looks

"We need to see Professor Dumbledore, immediately!" Harry said, rather breathless.

"Well I'm sorry; Professor Dumbledore received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and left straight for London."

"He's gone now, but this is important!" Faykan said frantically, "It's about the Philosopher's Stone."

Whatever Professor McGonagall was expecting, that wasn't it. The book she was holding fell to her desk with a thump.

"Someone's going to try and steal it." Harry continued further baffling the Transfiguration teacher.

"I don't know how you five found out about the stone, but rest assured it is perfectly safe," she said flustered, "Now, I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine." With that she dismissed than and returned to her book.

As they walked along the corridors, Harry finally spoke up again "It's tonight; Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and he's gotten Dumbledore out of the way. He must have sent that note, and I bet the Ministry will get a real shock when Dumbledore shows up out of the blue.

"But what can we…" Draco began but stopped and the all turned when Hermione gasped. Snape was standing right behind them.

"Good afternoon," he said smoothly.

They all just stared at him.

"You five really shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said with a twisted smile. Turning to look directly at Harry and Faykan he continued, "People might think your, up to something."

He strode off in the opposite direction after making another snipe about how Gryffindor really couldn't afford to lose any more points anyway, which they all ignored.

"Well, that's it isn't it?" Harry said as they turned to go outside.

Draco stared at him, as did Ron and Hermione. Faykan kept an eye out for other teachers. Harry was very pale, and his eyes glittered with determination.

"I'm going down the trapdoor, tonight." He said flatly "I'm going to try and get to the Stone before Snape.

"You're mad!" said Ron.

"You can't!" said Hermione. "After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!"

Draco thought Harry was going to explode "SO WHAT!" he shouted. "Don't you understand, if Snape gets the Stone, Voldemort's coming back…" Harry seemed to trail off and Faykan picked up for him

"Losing points doesn't matter anymore, Voldemort needs to be stopped at all costs. Harry and I are going down the trapdoor tonight and you three can either join us or not, because nothing any of you say will change our minds."

Harry found his voice again and added, "Voldemort killed my parents, remember? I'm never going over to the Dark Side, so he will have to kill me too."

Draco spoke up before either of the other two, "Your right Harry,"

"I'll use the invisibility cloak," said Harry.

"But will it cover all four of us?" Ron asked

"All four of us?"

"Oh come off it, you don't think were going to let you and Fay handle this on you own do you?" Draco added, nodding.

"Of course not," said Hermione briskly. "How do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? I'd better go and look through my books; there might be something useful..."

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

After dinner Harry, Ron and Hermione waited in the common room for people to drift away. Faykan had gone out the portrait hole to get Draco so they didn't have to go all the way to the dungeons and lose precious time.

When the last person finally drifted on up to bed, Harry pulled out the invisibility cloak and they crept toward the portrait hole.

"What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing," said Harry, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back.

Neville stared at their guilty faces.

"You're going out again," he said.

"No, no, no," said Hermione. "No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Neville?"

"You can't go out," said Neville, "you'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."

"You don't understand," said Harry, "this is important."

But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate and foolish.

"I won't let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. "I'll fight you!"

Hermione finally stepped forward and raised her wand, "Neville I'm really, really sorry about this. _Petrificus Totalus_!"

Neville's arms and legs snapped together and he toppled to the floor. The three Gryffindors hurried past him, muttering apologies as they passed. They threw the cloak about them and left Gryffindor Tower, passing down towards the third floor, intercepting Draco who was hiding in a small dark crevasse behind a statue, and ran into Faykan the fox outside the third floor corridor.

The door was ajar as they entered, Faykan changing back into human form and Harry pulling the cloak off them. Turning to Draco, Ron and Hermione, Harry spoke "If you want to go back now, I won't blame you. You can take the cloak; we won't need it from here on." They all complained at that, and they pushed the door open. Faykan took the flute from Harry as he walked inside, and immediately he began playing the same song that he had played to let Harry fall asleep. As Harry pushed past the door with Ron, Hermione and Draco, they saw Fluffy fast asleep with one giant paw on top of the trapdoor.

Motioning for Faykan to keep playing, Draco, Ron and Harry moved Fluffy's paw with difficulty and pulled open the trapdoor.

"What can you see?" Hermione said anxiously.

"Nothing, just black, not even a means to climb down, we'll have to drop," Harry replied, "I'll go first," he added. He looked at Faykan, who was still playing, and was given an assuring nod, as Faykan pointed with one hand at Fluffy, indicating that he would keep the dog asleep until they were all through then follow. Harry lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips. Then he looked up at Ron and said, "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"

"Right," said Ron.

With that, Harry let go. Cold damp air rushed past him as he fell, and after a few moments he landed with a funny muffled thump. It felt as though he was sitting on some sort of plant.

"It's okay!" he called up to the light the size of a postage stamp, which was the open trapdoor, "it's a soft landing, you can jump!"

Ron followed right away. He landed, sprawled next to Harry.

"What's this stuff?" were his first words.

"Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall. Come on, Hermione!"

Draco and Hermione had already jumped. She landed on Harry's other side while Draco landed next to Ron.

"We must be miles under the school," she said.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really," said Ron.

The distant music stopped. There was a loud bark from the dog, but moments later, Faykan had landed next to Hermione, who shrieked, "Lucky! Look at you both!"

Both Hermione and Faykan leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. They had to struggle because the moments they had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around their ankles. Draco, Harry and Ron had their legs already tightly bound in long creepers without their noticing.

Hermione and Faykan managed to free themselves before the plant got any firm grips on them, and they watched in horror as the three boys fought to pull the plant off themselves, but the more they strained, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is, it's Devil's Snare!"

She starting to say a rhyme that she had learned in Herbology, but Faykan sprang into action as soon as she said the plant's name. Whipping out his wand, he slashed it in front of him and bellowed "_kalina en' i' anar naara haba goth_"[1] brilliant white light erupted from his wand and set the tendrils of the Devil's Snare alight, causing it to release the three boys as it fled from the fire threatening to engulf it.

"Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione," said Harry as he joined her by the wall, wiping sweat off his face.

"Yeah," said Draco, "and lucky Fay doesn't lose his head in a crisis, you really need to teach us some of those spells by the way."

"This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.

After several minutes of following the downward sloping passages, Ron stopped listening.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.

Harry listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"It sounds like wings," he said

"There's light ahead, I can see something moving."

They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door. In the center of the room were several brooms. Harry watched the birds for several seconds and they soared glittering overhead.

"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly. "They're keys! Winged keys, and I bet one of them fits that door."

Harry, Ron, Draco and Faykan all took brooms and sped off snatching at keys, while Hermione studied the door. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one, probably silver, like the handle." She called up to the boys.

"That one!" Harry called to the others. "That big one with bright blue wings, the feathers are all crumpled on one side."

The four boys immediately formulated a strategy, coming in at the key from all four directions, pinning it between them all and the wall. Harry dived and with a nasty crunching noise, pinned the key against the wall with one hand. They landed quickly and Harry rammed the struggling key into the lock and turned it. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice.

The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.

They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like granite. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces.

"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Draco. "We've got to play our way across the room."

Behind the white pieces they could see another door.

"How?" said Hermione nervously.

"I think," said Ron, "we're going to have to be chessmen."

Both Ron and Draco started working together, placing Harry as the king, Faykan and Draco as the two bishops, Hermione as the king's castle, and Ron taking the queen side knight. When they took their places, a white pawn had moved forward two squares. Ron and Draco would conjointly plan out their moves, and then Ron would shout out the commands to their pieces. They almost immediately started to dominate the board, barley losing any pieces. After what seemed like hours, Ron finally was muttering to himself,

"We're nearly there," he muttered suddenly. "Let me think let me think..."

The white queen turned her blank face toward him.

"Yes..." said Ron softly, "It's the only way... I've got to be taken."

"NO!" Harry and Hermione shouted.

"That's chess!" snapped Draco. "You've got to make some sacrifices! He takes one step forward and the queen will take him, which leaves you free to checkmate the king, Faykan!"

"But," Harry started, but Ron cut him off

"Do you want to stop Snape from getting that Stone or not?"

Before anyone could argue further, Ron stepped forward, and the white queen pounced, striking him hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor. Hermione screamed and almost moved off her square, only remaining when Draco commanded her to stay put as they were still playing. Faykan then moved three squares to the left, casting _'bombarda'_ on the pawn in his way, "Checkmate!" he said and the white king removed his crown and threw it to his feet. Draco dashed to Ron, checking if he was alright, while Faykan transfigured the stone crown to a metal one made of what seemed to be gold, and placed it on Ron's head.

"Take care of Ron, then go to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore," Harry told Draco, who nodded, "We'll go onward," With one last desperate look back at Ron, Harry, Hermione and Faykan charged through the door and up the next passageway.

They had reached another door.

"All right?" Harry whispered.

"Go on."

Harry pushed it open.

A disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making them pull their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one Faykan had turned to stone on Halloween, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Faykan whispered as they stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. "Come on, I can't breathe."

He pulled open the next door, them all hardly daring to look at what came next, but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Faykan studied the bottles while Harry looked over Hermione's shoulder to read it:

_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_

_Two of us will help you, which ever you would find,_

_One among us seven will let you move ahead,_

_Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

_Two among our number hold only nettle wine,_

_Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line._

_Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,_

_To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

_First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

_You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_

_Second, different are those who stand at either end,_

_But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;_

_Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,_

_Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;_

_Fourth, the second left and the second on the right_

_Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._

Hermione let out a sigh and Harry saw that she was smiling, the very thing he felt like doing. She explained that it was a logic puzzle and studied the paper several times over. Finally she clapped her hands.

"Got it," she said. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire, toward the stone."

"Which one will get you back through the purple flames?" Faykan asked.

Hermione pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.

"You drink that," said Harry. "No, listen, get back and help Draco with Ron. Grab brooms from the flying key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, as we need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."

"But Harry, what if You-Know-Who's with him?"

"That's why I'll be with him," Faykan said, eyes glowing with the black fire's reflection.

"Please be careful, both of you," Hermione said finally, as she took a long drink from the round bottle and took off through the purple fire.

Turning to Faykan, Harry steeled his nerve and picked up the small bottle, "only enough for one swallow each," he said. Faykan just nodded, "Okay, here we come," he took one small mouthful and passed the bottle to Faykan, who drained it. It felt as though ice was flooding his body. Faykan put the bottle down and they stood, side by side before the black flames. "Ready Harry?" Faykan asked.

"Ready," he replied.

They jumped through the flames together. There was someone already in the next room, but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort.

It was Quirrell.

"You!" gasped Harry; he shot a look to Faykan, who was gone. Turning back to Quirrell, he saw a fox circling the room stealthily through the shadows.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter."

Harry saw Faykan stealing toward the Mirror of Erised, which was behind Quirrell, while Quirrell's back was to him, so he decided to stall Quirrell from turning back to the mirror as long as he was unaware of Faykan.

"But I thought it was Snape." He said

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and Harry noticed that it wasn't his usual laugh, but cold and sharper. "Yes Severus does seem the type doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

Harry had come to that conclusion earlier, all of Draco and Faykan's thoughts about Quirrell were finally clicking into place. But Faykan was only halfway to the mirror, so Harry played like he was shocked.

"But Snape tried to kill me!"

"No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape or you little friend hadn't been muttering counter curses, trying to save you."

Faykan was between Quirrell and the mirror, and was transforming silently back into human form.

Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry.

"You and your little friends are too nosy to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew one of you had seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."

"Ah so that's why you let the troll was inside the castle, I was wondering why you stank of it." Faykan said, announcing his presence behind Quirrell. As he turned Faykan shot a blinding flash of light at him, knocking the professor backward, away from Harry and the Mirror. Harry noticed that his bonds loosen dramatically, allowing him to slip free.

While Faykan dueled with Quirrell, both sending bolts and flashes at each other as they battled across the room, Harry moved to the mirror quickly, his mind racing. What he wanted more then anything right now, was to get the stone before Quirrell. Quirrell sent a blinding blue bolt at Faykan, who sidestepped it and returned to his offense, pushing Quirrell back further away from Harry, who had to duck as Quirrell's spell reflected off the Mirror.

Harry quickly stepped directly in front of the mirror. He saw his reflection, pale and scared looking at first with spells and curses flying behind him. But a moment later, the reflection smiled at him. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket, and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into his real pocket. Somehow, incredibly, he'd gotten the Stone.

Quirrell was screaming curses at Faykan, when finally a high cold voice sounded from his direction, but Quirrell hadn't spoken them "_Fool, get Potter, he has the stone!_" Blasting a final curse at Faykan, Quirrell turned and flew toward Harry, but Faykan cried "_neuma goth_!" and Quirrell was entangled in a magical net, that prevented him from moving.

"Master, the boy is strong, help me, Master!" Quirrell cried in desperation.

The cold voice spoke again, and it seemed to chill Harry to the bone, "_Let me speak to them, face to face._"

"Master you are not strong enough!"

"_I have strength enough for this…_"

Faykan was at Harry's side, wand still pointed at Quirrell, but Harry couldn't muster the will to move his legs as Quirrell removed his turban, revealing a horrific sight. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

"_Harry Potter..._" it whispered.

Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn't move.

"Voldemort," Faykan hissed

"_Yes, see what I have become?_" the face said. "_Mere shadow and vapor… I have form only when I share another's body… Unicorn blood can sustain me, but it cannot give me a body on my own… and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will finally return to power… Now… why don't you give me that stone in your pocket Harry?_"

So he knew. The feeling suddenly surged back into Harry's legs. He stumbled backward.

"_Don't be a fool,_" snarled the face, as it stared intently at Harry. "_Better save your own life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents... They died begging me for mercy..._"

"YOU LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly.

"_How touching..._" it hissed. "_I always value bravery... Yes, boy, your parents were brave... I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain._"

"NEVER!"

"_KILL THEM!_" Voldemort bellowed just as the net around Quirrell torn into pieces, and Quirrell fired a spell at Faykan, blasting him backward, right through the black fire into the potion room. He then leaped to Harry, knocking him off his feet and landing on top of him, both hands around Harry's neck. Harry's scar was almost blinding him with pain, yet he could see Quirrell howling in agony.

"Master, I cannot hold him. My hands! My hands!"

And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms, Harry could see they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny.

"_Then kill him, fool, and be done!_" screeched Voldemort.

Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, by instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face.

"AAAARGH!"

Quirrell rolled off him, his face blistering, too, and then Harry knew; Quirrell couldn't touch his bare skin, not without suffering terrible pain. His only chance was to keep hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from doing a curse.

Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm, and hung on as tight as he could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off, the pain in Harry's head was building, he couldn't see, he could only hear Quirrell's terrible shrieks and Voldemort's yells of, "_KILL HIM! KILL HIM!_" and other voices, maybe in Harry's own head, crying, "Harry! Harry!" as Harry's vision drifted into blackness and he knew no more.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry woke up to see lights sparkling above him, it looked like the Snitch. He blinked, and saw that it wasn't the Snitch at all. He blinked again, and the smiling face of Albus Dumbledore swam into view above him.

"Good afternoon, Harry," Dumbledore said politely. Harry immediately began telling Dumbledore everything, about Quirrell, the Stone, the fight down in front of the mirror, when Dumbledore interrupted him.

"Calm yourself, dear boy, you are a little behind the times," said Dumbledore. "Quirrell does not have the Stone."

Harry began to speak again, but the Headmaster held up his hand.

"Harry, please relax, or Madam Pomfrey will have me thrown out."

Harry swallowed and looked around him. He realized he must be in the hospital wing. He was lying in a bed with white linen sheets, and next to him was a table piled high with what looked like half a candy shop. In a bed nearby was Faykan, still unconscious and badly burned from head to foot. Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey were tending to his burns and setting his other injuries.

"What happened down in the dungeons between you, Mr. Undol and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows."

"How long have I been in here?"

"Three days. Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy will be most relieved you have come round, they have been extremely worried about both you and young Faykan." Harry took another look at Faykan's motionless form, he looked terrible, his entire body red and blackened in some places. His wand lay on the bedside table with burn marks etched into the wood.

"But sir, the Stone?" Harry said turning back to Dumbledore.

"I see you are not to be distracted. Very well, the Stone. Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you. I arrived in time to prevent that, although you were doing very well on your own, I must say."

Dumbledore continued to explain that he had feared for Harry's safety as the effort involved in him holding on to Quirrell nearly killed him. He then assured Harry that the Stone was going to be destroyed, but warned Harry that there were still other means for Voldemort to return to the physical world.

Harry nodded, but stopped quickly, because it made his head hurt. Then he said, "Sir, there are some other things I'd like to know, if you can tell me... things I want to know the truth about..."

"The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is both a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I beg you'll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie."

"Well... Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the first place?"

Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time.

"Alas, the first thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today, not now. You will know, one day... put it from your mind for now, Harry. When you are older... I know you hate to hear this... when you are ready, you will know."

And Harry knew it would be no good to argue.

"But why couldn't Quirrell touch me?"

Dumbledore explained to him about how his mother's sacrifice to save him created a kind of shield that prevented Voldemort from being able to bare to touch him, Quirrell, being possessed by Voldemort, therefore couldn't touch Harry either. Harry then asked how he got the Stone out of the mirror. At that, Dumbledore smiled, explaining that as one of his more brilliant ideas, only someone who wanted to find but not use the Stone could have gotten it out of the mirror.

Dumbledore finally bid Harry good day, and went to talk with Professor Snape while Madam Pomfrey was wheedled into allowing in Ron, (still wearing his golden crown,) Hermione and Draco for five minutes to talk to Harry. They all sent sad looks over at Faykan's unconscious form, covered in burn salves and other potions. Ron and Draco grilled Harry for everything that happened after the chess room. He told them everything, from the potion room with Hermione, and the battle that Faykan had with Quirrell in the mirror chamber. It was one of those moments where the truth was more exciting than the wild rumors.

Madam Pomfrey finally threw his friends out, and Harry was released soon after with orders to go straight to his dormitory and go to bed. When Harry climbed into bed, he saw a present on his bedside table which read '_to Harry, from Hagrid_.' Opening it quickly, Harry found a leather covered book, filled with wizard photographs of his parents, smiling and waving at him. Harry fell asleep with the book clutched tightly to his chest, happiness flooding through him.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus was mentally cursing the stupidity of Gryffindors as he worked the burn salve into Undol's body. The boy was covered from head to foot in burns; Albus said he had found him unconscious in the very room Severus had prepared to defend the Philosopher's Stone. From what the Headmaster had learned from Potter, this boy had had a powerful magical duel with a Voldemort possessed Quirrell, and was doing rather well if Potter's word was to be trusted. Not only until Quirrell used a powerful _'reducto'_ curse did the boy finally go down, having been thrown through the magical fire separating Severus' defenses from the mirror room.

After he was finished speaking with Potter, Albus had come over to where Severus was just finishing putting the salve on the boys back. "How is he Severus," the headmaster asked. "He'll be fine in twenty four hours, Albus," Severus replied. He was still surprised, however, at how the boy had managed to survive the fires at all. The redness of the burns was already starting to fade, even though the black fire was meant to kill any who tried to pass without the correct potion.

"When do you think he will awaken?"

"Probably some time in the night, tomorrow morning at the latest." The Potions master guessed.

"Good, he should be healthy enough to attend the feast then I presume?"

"Probably," Severus answered "Headmaster, I was wondering if you knew anything about these marks on his back." He indicated the two grey twisting lines that started at Undol's neck and traveled down the boys back as well as spiraling down both his arms and legs. Dumbledore studied them for several moments, and then finally came to a conclusion. "Ah, it explains a lot about this boy, very interesting indeed. I had thought they had all returned across the sea…"

Severus looked puzzled "What is it Albus?"

Dumbledore looked at Severus, blue eyes twinkling with excitement, "They are the markings of an Istar, the members of the most powerful groups of wizards to ever walk this earth. But, why does this boy have them, the Istari went back to the realm of their masters almost two thousand years ago?"

Severus looked at the boy again 'Istar' he mused, if indeed this boy was one of those ancient wizards, it would mean he was capable of tremendous power. But it still left many questions, why was he just a boy? Weren't the only five members of the Istari in recorded history were all old men?

"Let's not worry too much about this right now, Severus." Dumbledore said, turning to walk away, "Clearly the boy is on our side, since he defended Harry from Quirrell, therefore who he is and what his goals are we can figure out in due time, it would just be best to play ignorant for the time being."

Severus turned to follow his mentor, but turned back to look at Undol one last time, those markings, it was strange, the boy that he remembered from his years at Hogwarts had something similar, didn't he? Or was Severus just so desperate to see his old friend again that he was rearranging the memories in his mind to make it seem that this boy was his friend reborn? Severus shook himself; this wasn't the time or the place to ponder such things. He strode out of the hospital wing, cloak billowing behind him, never noticing his patient opening his eyes to watch him leave "Sev…" the boy groaned, then feel back into slumber.

[1]_kalina en' i' anar naara haba goth : light of the sun burn mine enemies_

[2]_neuma goth : trap my foe_


	12. Epilogue

**Please Review. Your thoughts may indeed influence how the story flows, so please speak up. Even if its just a "Good Job" please say it. Encouragment is amazingly helpful.**

**Epilog**

**Going home?**

Draco was going to enjoy the end of year feast, especially since the Great Hall was bedecked in Slytherin silver and green. From across the room, he could see his friends Harry, Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table, looking sullen and gloomy. Draco knew the reasons, not only were they worried about Faykan, who still hadn't been released from the Hospital Wing, but they knew they were the ones responsible for Slytherin's victory of the house cup.

When a sudden hush fell over the entire school, Draco and many other people's heads turned to the door to the entrance hall. Faykan had appeared, looking very tired and most of his body was still wrapped in bandages and salves for his injuries. Apparently Dumbledore had pulled some strings with the hospital matron to let him attend the feast. Harry Ron and Hermione looked like they were about to rush Faykan and tackle him in their joy at seeing him awake, but at that moment Dumbledore stood and started his end of year speech, which allowed Faykan to slip silently into a seat between Harry and Ron.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts..."

"Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty two points; second, Ravenclaw with four hundred and twenty six points; and in first place, Slytherin, with four hundred and seventy two points."

Draco cheered with the rest of Slytherin house. Down the table from him, Nott was banging his goblet on the table, sneering toward Harry, Faykan and the other Gryffindors. Even Draco felt a little sick watching him.

"Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

The room went very still. Some of the Slytherins' smiles faded a little. Draco was watching the Headmaster whose eyes were twinkling.

"Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes... "First to Misters Ronald Weasley, and Draco Malfoy..."

Draco went pale; he looked over at Ron, who looked like he was turning into a radish.

"...for the best played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award

Gryffindor and Slytherin house fifty points each."

The cheers from the student nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver. Percy could be heard telling the other prefects, "My brother, you know! My youngest brother! He got past McGonagall's giant chess set!" Fred and George could be seen forcing the golden crown Faykan had transfigured back onto Ron's head.

At last there was silence again.

"Second to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Hermione buried her face in her arms; Draco strongly suspected she had burst into tears. Gryffindors up and down the table were beside themselves, they were a fifty points up.

"Third to Mr. Faykan Undol…" Dumbledore continued. "For the will to be a beacon of strength when others were in grave peril, I award Gryffindor House fifty points."

Faykan just smiled up at Dumbledore, before some foolish Gryffindor slapped him on the back and he almost fell off his chair, apparently the burns were still rather raw. The Gryffindors were going mad with their cheers; they were now one hundred points up.

"Fourth… to Mr. Harry Potter..." said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet, "for pure nerve and outstanding courage; I award Gryffindor house sixty points."

The din was deafening. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryffindor now had five hundred and twenty two points, exactly the same as Slytherin. They had tied for the house cup… if only Dumbledore had given Harry just one more point.

Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent.

"There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

The Hall exploded, Draco and the Slytherins didn't clap, but internally he was very happy for his friends. Nott looked like Christmas had been cancelled, the look of horror on his face almost made Draco laugh out loud. The cup didn't matter to him anymore. The cheers from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables were dwarfed by the roars of delight coming from the Gryffindor table. Neville had disappeared under a pile of people congratulating him with slaps to the back, hugs from girls, and handshakes.

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, which died down as the Headmaster spoke. "Assuming my calculations are correct, a change of decorations is in order."

He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. Draco looked at Harry; his friend looked like he was having the time of his life. And for him, Draco was very glad.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The last few days of the school year were the best Harry could have hoped for. He completely forgot about the exam results until they were handed out by Professor McGonagall. Harry and Ron both had passed with good marks, Draco had done better, and Hermione had the best grades of the first years, but only barley beating Faykan, whose bad History of Magic essay was the only reason he wasn't first in the class "But Binns' nonsense is all inaccurate!" he complained loudly, but his heart was clearly not into his argument, as he finally just let it go.

Before Harry realized it, they were speeding back to muggle London on the Hogwarts Express, the teachers had passed them all notes to inform them that magic was not to be used outside of school (Faykan had ignored his, and Harry had a suspicion that he might get into major trouble over the summer) As they all changed back into the muggle clothes, Draco almost had almost choked on his Every Flavored Beans when he saw the tattoos Faykan sported on his back, which made them all laugh loudly.

Finally it was time, as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Faykan exited the barrier back to the muggle world, Harry could see Ron's family waiting for them.

"There he is, Mum, there he is, look!"

It was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, but she wasn't pointing at Ron.

"Harry Potter!" she squealed. "Look, Mum! I can see…"

"Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point."

Mrs. Weasley smiled down at them.

"Busy year?" she said.

"Very," said Harry. "Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs. Weasley."

Faykan merely smiled as Mrs. Weasley looked between them all.

"Oh, it was nothing, dear."

Ron finally turned to Harry, Faykan and Hermione, before his family left, "You must come and stay this summer," said Ron, "all three of you… I'll send you each an owl." He called as he rushed to catch up with his family.

The Dursleys hadn't come to collect Harry, but Hermione's parents graciously offered to drop Harry and Faykan at Privet drive, which they accepted. As Harry and Faykan walked up to the door, they turned back to wave as the Grangers drove off, and Faykan finally told Harry "Oh by the way, let me handle the Dursleys, there are going to be some pretty big changes this summer." Harry only grinned as they reached the door and rang the doorbell…

**So comes the end of A New Player: Year One… Stay tuned for Year Two: Secrets and Speakers, which will be posted as a seprate story.**


	13. Year Two is online!

New Player 2: Secrets and Serpents is up as a separate story. Please continue the adventure of Harry and friends in the exciting new sequel.

Thank you for everyone who read and reviewed Year One!

Year Two Link: .net/s/6921046/1/A_New_Player_Year_Two_Secrets_and_Serpents


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